System makes it difficult for independents to succeed: Analyst

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Political Analyst Enoch Maponya says the current electoral system makes it difficult for independent candidates to succeed in an election. All 11 independent candidates who contested in this year’s general elections failed to obtain a seat in the general assembly and legislatures.

The Electoral Amendment Bill, signed last year by President Cyril Ramaphosa, allows individuals to contest general elections as independent candidates.

Former welterweight boxing champion, Lovemore Ndou, was one of the candidates. Although he initially announced himself as contesting nationally, he later downgraded his bid to Limpopo province.

Ndou garnered just over 500 votes during the highly contested 2024 general elections. He believes some voters who intended to vote for him mistakenly cast their ballots for another party.

“ I lost some of votes to BOSA. When I started I was campaigning as BABSA, about a month before the election the IEC said I should campaign under my name as an independent candidate. It was already too late because a lot of people were already used to BABSA and some of the radio stations were also referring to me as president of BABSA. In the end when the people went to vote they could not find BABSA and the closest thing was BOSA. Some people called me and said they voted for me as BOSA.”

Ndou says he will register a political party as he starts his preparations for the 2026 local government elections.

“It is not easy to contest as an independent candidate. I think the system was designed (for independent candidates) to fail. If you look at the numbers, you need to obtain time to secure one seat as compared to parties. They only need just over 45 000 while we need double that number. So going as an independent candidate was not the best solution but running as BABSA in 2026 and 2029 I know I will do better.”

Political Analyst Maponya, says that with the current electoral system, attaining a seat for any independent candidate will remain a difficult task.

“ The system was established by the Parliament, it is doomed to fail. How do you expect an individual to compete against a party instead of contesting a candidate from a particular party? Secondly, how do you expect an individual to cover the whole province in terms of doing door-to-door. Where would the person get the money to buy posters.”

Limpopo had three independent candidates, Lovemore Ndou, Faith Phathela and Blessings Ramoba, in the general elections.

– Report by Avhapfani Munyai