Johnathan Paoli
THE Constitutional Court has dismissed an application by the Independent Candidates’ Association (ICA) and Build One South Africa to have the Electoral Amendment Act declared unconstitutional.
The court was asked to decide whether it was irrational and inconsistent with the Constitution for independent candidates to only be allowed to contest 200 of the 400 seats in the National Assembly.
The Act, which was passed by Parliament in April this year allows independent candidates to contest elections but allocates them only 200 seats in the National Assembly, while the remaining 200 seats are reserved for political party candidates.
The ICA wanted to be allowed to contest at least 350 seats, in addition to having the threshold for the number of signatures required to contest an election lowered from 10,000 to 1,000.
The ICA argued that the Act was unconstitutional as it restricted the participation of independent candidates in the
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