AZAPO ELECTORAL REFORM PROPOSALS
By Asanda Swaartbooi
AZAPO Secretary General
1. Preamble
Elections are, by definition, regarded as the most democratic process within which the will of the people can be tested, in line with the principle of universal adult suffrage.
Determination to ensure that elections are independent, free and fair accentuate their credibility prospects.
To better improve credibility prospects and ensure sovereign safeguards for the exercise of the right to vote, free of financial interests investing in an electoral process for the returns
of directing public policy, elections should be funded from the fiscus.
To solidify the oneness of the nation and the singularity of the country, the geographic configuration should steer clear of the nine-province formula and its last born cousin, Orania, all of which have a disturbing resonance with the ethnicization and balkanizationof the our country and its people with echoes of the tribal homeland reserves that not only
cemented land dispossession of the majority but also as devise to solidify the rule of divide, rule and conquer.
Because elections are about acquisition and retention for the exercise of public power and the means towards control, they tend to be mostly contested and at times deadly.
This contestation can both be overt and covert. The covert part happens to be dangerous as it involves illicit means to direct the desired outcomes, which often are not the will of the people and a contributory factor to financing the hands that pull the trigger in assassinations.
This is more common in third world countries as the first world countries are the prime drivers of covert operations that add unsavory dimension to predetermine electoral
outcomes.
Africa has been, and continues to be, the backbone upon which Europe and the West developed their countries to first world status.
It is therefore not surprising that the scramble for Africa will continue for as long as the African natural resources are necessary for Europe and Western development.
This scramble, coupled with neo-colonial precepts, will drive the programme of wishing to decide the types of government African countries elect.
It is against these factors that poor countries are prone to coup de tat, internal wars, unfairly biased media, rigged elections, intimidation, instability, corrupt practices and other nefarious tendencies.
This tends to seeing people losing faith in the electoral process convinced that the bullet – for which the hidden and guiding financial corporate hands are just as culpable – is the better option than the ballot.
It is for these reasons that due care should be encouraged for the electoral process to have necessary checks and balances to eliminate underhanded schemes that muddy the election process.