By Zuko Komisa
National Assembly (NA) Speaker, Ms. Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, declines ATM request for a secret ballot during Phala Phala vote.
The African Transformation Movement (ATM) requested that a secret ballot be used to vote on the findings of the Section 89 Independent Panel, but the National Assembly (NA) Speaker, Ms. Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, declined.
In a letter dated December 1, addressed to the Speaker, ATM President Mr. Vuyo Zungula requested that she take into account permitting MPs to cast a secret ballot after the discussion of the Section 89 panel report.
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A spokesperson for the parliament, Moloto Mothapo, stated on Monday that Mapisa-Nqakula came to the conclusion that voting by secret ballot would prevent residents from learning the viewpoints of their members “across party lines.”
“In her letter to the ATM president, the speaker said she believes that a closed voting procedure will deprive the citizens of identifying the positions of their representatives across party lines, and that this may facilitate the possibility of corruption aimed at influencing members to vote in a manner where they will be shielded from accountability to the people they represent for the exercise of their constitutional duty,” Mothapo said.
“The speaker also said she had to balance Mr Zungula’s reasons for a secret ballot procedure against other imperatives, including the foundational constitutional principle of ‘openness’, as set out in section 1[d] of the constitution, which guides SA democratic order.”
“Furthermore, the speaker said the constitutional requirement, as set out in section 59[1][b], that the National Assembly must conduct its proceedings in an open manner was also an important consideration in this case.”
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