Voters Must Have a Right to Know Who They Put in Office

Statement by Ashor Sarupen – DA Federal Council Chairperson:

The outcome of the DA’s electoral court challenge against parties that submit single-name lists of candidates has serious implications for voters rights to know who they are electing.

The consequence of the judgement exposes a serious gap in our electoral law, in which the judiciary has held that voters have a constitutional right to know (for example in party political funding), except, now, for the actual persons who will enter public office as a consequence of their votes.

In the My Vote Counts case, the Constitutional Court held that information about who funds political parties is essential to voters’ right to make political choices and participate in elections. Voters need that information to make an informed choice.

Yet under the law as interpreted in today’s judgment, a party can ask for votes without naming all the candidates who may take the seats those votes secure.

Those names can be added after the election, when voters have already made their choice.

Voters are entitled to know who is funding a party. They are equally entitled to know who that party may put in office. One principle cannot be upheld while the other is ignored.

The Electoral Court postponed the DA’s constitutional challenge; it did not decide it.

The DA will now argue the constitutional challenge before the Electoral Court, where we hope the same standard that was applied to party political funding, namely that voters have a right to know, applied equally to the very persons they will be electing on party lists.

Voters must know who may represent them before they cast their ballots.

The DA has filed complete lists precisely for this reason.

We trust, on 4 November, that voters will choose parties that don’t hide their candidates from the electorate.