ELECTORAL AMENDMENT BILL UPDATE

ELECTORAL AMENDMENT BILL UPDATE

• 12 December 2022
• Parliament
• SA Legal Academy

The Constitutional Court has given Parliament until 31 January 2023 to finalise the Bill – allowing the National Assembly’s Home Affairs Committee just three days to process and consider written submissions on changes proposed by the NCOP. If the committee endorses these changes – possibly informed by input received from members of the public – the Bill will be passed and sent to the President for signature. If the committee opposes one or more of the changes proposed by the NCOP, the Bill will be sent for mediation.

The committee issued a notice on 4 December calling for input by 27 January 2023, as SA Legal Academy has already reported. This was before the National Assembly considered the committee’s request for additional time and before Parliament approached the Constitutional Court for the necessary extension to its deadline. The committee notice advertising the new clauses appears to have been issued on the assumption that the deadline would be extended to 28 February 2023, as requested.

Given the complexity of the new clauses and the controversy surrounding the Bill as a whole, the volume of submissions from stakeholders may be more than the committee can be reasonably expected to consider in three days.

• Parliament’s media statement
• the committee notice calling for submissions
• the Bill’s ‘B’ version
• the list of amendments on which submissions are invited
• the SA Legal Academy report

Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch

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