OUTA is part of a civil society group which has jointly written to parliament’s Select Committee on Security and Justice asking it to reject the Electoral Matters Amendment Bill.

"Today you will vote on the Electoral Matters Amendment Bill (EMAB) and its related report. As members of civil society, we appeal to you to reject the Bill in its current form and send it back to the National Assembly for remedy because several of its proposed amendments are plainly unconstitutional,” says the letter to the committee.

“If passed in its current form, amendments the Bill makes to the Political Party Funding Act (PPFA) will weaken transparency and accountability in our party funding legislation. While there is a legitimate need to amend certain pieces of legislation to bring independent candidates into the political fold, the attempts to fundamentally alter aspects of the PPFA are opportunistic and make it easier for all political parties to solicit private funding with less public scrutiny.”

The letter says the bill, which was recently passed by the National Assembly, is unconstitutional and the public participation process has been inadequate. If the Select Committee passes the bill, it goes to the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) and, if the NCOP passes it, it goes to the President for signature.

The letter is here.

These are the groups which submitted the letter:

• Ahmed Kathrada Foundation

• Alliance of NPO Networks

• AmaBhungane Centre for Investigative Journalism

• Ambassadors 4 Change

• Centre for Civic and Democracy Education

• Centre for Good Governance and Social Justice

• Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution

• Defend Our Democracy Movement

• Direct Democracy South Africa

• Media Monitoring Africa

• My Vote Counts

• Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse

• Progressive Tamil Movement

• Rising Stars Youth Development Network

• Sekunjalo Health and Poverty Alleviation

• South African Conversations

• The Southern African Institute for Responsive and Accountable Governance

• Westside Park Community Crisis Committee

• Youth Empowering Initiative Democracy

More information

More information on OUTA's work on electoral reform is here.