Parliament’s second and last extended Constitutional Court deadline to amend the Electoral Act, officially ends on Tuesday.
The national legislature, however, finalised amending the Act five days before the February 28 deadline.
This comes after the National Assembly (NA) passed the Electoral Amendment Bill on Thursday with 218 MPs voting in favour of the Bill and 81 objections.
There were no abstentions. It is now up to the president to sign it into law.
The Bill was first passed by the Assembly on October 20, 2022 with 232 voting in its favour.
Those who were in support at the time were the African National Congress (ANC), Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC), Al Jama Ah and the National Freedom Party (NFP).
The Democratic Alliance (DA), African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP), Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), Freedom Front-Plus and Congress of the People (COPE) voted against it.
The Good Party and the African Independent Congress (AIC) had abstained at the time.
It was then sent to the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) for concurrence.
The Bill seeks to give independent candidates the right to participate in the National and Provincial Elections.
On June, 11 2020, the Constitutional Court gave Parliament 24 months to rectify the defect in the Act following the New Nation Movement’s successful court challenge.
Constitutional Court Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga declared the Electoral Act unconstitutional as it required adult citizens to only become members of the National Assembly or the Provincial Legislatures through political party membership.
Source: SABC News
