Hon Chairperson, the Electoral Amendment Bill is a Private Member's Bill sponsored by the hon James Selfe. It was tabled and referred to the portfolio committee on 27 March. The Bill seeks to change our electoral system, make provision for constituencies and allow South Africans who are absent from their voting districts on voting day, whether in another province or abroad, to vote in the national election as well as in the election for their provinces.
The Bill makes provision for a National Assembly of 400 members constituted as follows: a total of 100 members elected proportionally, according to the national proportional support of parties; and 300 members elected in 100 constituencies, which means that each constituency would have three Members of Parliament. These 300 constituency MPs are elected according to a proportional representation system.
After allowing the hon Selfe to address us and after deliberating on the Bill, the committee adopted a motion that the legislation is not desirable at present. Amazingly, the hon Selfe's own party the DA - and I can hear some of you saying that it's an excellent idea - also supported this motion on the undesirability of the Bill.
Only the hon McIntosh, presumably acting with a mandate from Cope, supported the Bill. Ironically, if the Bill had become legislation, it would most probably have erased Cope from the political map. [Laughter.]
The Bill was not supported due to the following considerations. The proposed changes to the electoral system, to include both the constituency and proportional representation list system, might very well dilute the constitutional principle of a multiparty democracy.
It does appear that these changes to the system will be to the extreme detriment of smaller parties such as Cope, and will result in a two-party or three-party system instead of the current multiparty system that we have. The net results of the Bill would be an increased threshold resulting in the exclusion of more political parties and a system that is less proportionate to the votes received by each party than what is presently the case.
We interrogated the matter and these were the conclusions that the committee came to.
The introduction of a constituency-based proportional representation list system will also result in a more complicated electoral system - something we do not want in this country.