Institute for Democracy in Africa (Cape Town)
Justin Sylvester
16 May 2011
opinion
Cape Town — The local government elections are just a week away and the election campaigning season has been in full swing for some time now. Elections have become a key feature of South Africa’s democracy since 1994 and a wealth of public opinion survey research shows that elections, as an institution, enjoy high levels of trust and legitimacy among the majority of citizens. This is also illustrated by the high levels of citizen participation in national elections, although the same is not true of local government elections where many citizens remain deeply dissatisfied with the quality of local governance and voter turnout levels have been low.
However, in order for these local government elections and future elections to reflect a meaningful quality of democracy, it is important that citizens cast their ballots in a climate which encourages access to information and is free of the distortion of choice by intimidation. South Africa has challenges with both of these issues as we are yet to see any movement on the regulation of private funding of political parties, while political intolerance and violence continue in certain parts of our country. But with greater regularity we have witnessed the emergence of a practice of vote buying.
The Democratic Alliance’s leader Helen Zille launches the opposition’s election campaign in Kliptown in March 2011.
The Political Information and Monitoring Service Programme (PIMS) at Idasa is currently engaged in a project that seeks to monitor vote buying during the ongoing local government election campaign. We have, through our network of monitors, observed numerous incidences of vote buying in various forms. This has been a trend since the 2009 national elections.
Although the influence of money and resources has plagued many of our institutions, with numerous cases of corruption at all tiers of the public and private sectors, vote buying undermines one of citizens’ most fundamental political rights – the vote. This is in addition to a similar effect that the current lack of regulation of private funding has on the right to vote.
Municipal jobs and Expanded Public Works Programme contracts have been granted to citizens explicitly in exchange for electoral support. We have observed the now seemingly ubiquitous food parcel and/or other minor items handed out at political meetings. Some incidents have even involved bundles of cash in exchange for citizens promised electoral support. Promises made by politicians in exchange for votes have also involved threats that delivery on some socio-economic rights as provided for in the Constitution would not happen unless community members “voted correctly.” Social assistance to the vulnerable via social grants has also been threatened on occasion, even though a social grants policy is supported by all main political parties. These incidences have occurred in municipalities across the country in KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga, Limpopo, Eastern Cape, Free State and the Western Cape.
However, vulnerable and marginalised citizens receiving food parcels and other forms of much needed assistance is not the primary concern here. What is a concern is that a perception is being created that this assistance and the rights that citizens have to a social grant for example, must be rewarded with electoral support. This is wrong. Any such impression is a cruel distortion of the social contract in a rights-based constitutional state. Citizens’ rights to dignity and freedom from want cannot be traded for their right to choose. Allowing or creating such an impression in the mind of voters entirely undermines the fundamental political rights of citizens and further disproportionately marginalises the poor, many of whom are increasingly dependent on such assistance.
Moreover, vote buying is a clear breach of the Electoral Code of Conduct as mandated by the Municipal Electoral Act 27 of 2000 and to which all contesting political parties are signatories. The Code states clearly that: “no person may offer any inducement or reward to another person to join or not join a party; to attend or not to attend a public meeting, march, demonstration, rally or other public political events; to vote or not to vote in any particular way (emphasis added), or to refuse a nomination as a candidate or to withdraw as a candidate.”
And so when a politician exchanges minor items or small amounts of cash for electoral support, it is no less corrupt than when businesses and wealthy individuals are awarded tenders and contracts by those holding public office in exchange for party political financing. Vote buying causes politics to become more a contest of cheque books and bank balances than a contest of ideas, principles and policy platforms. It has a corrosive effect on our politics and marginalises citizens from influencing the political process by undermining their freedom of electoral choice.
Justin Sylvester is a political researcher at the Political Information and Monitoring Service Programme at Idasa
AllAfrica – All the Time
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‘Say No To Vote Buying’