‘Third Ballot’ proposal could let voters prioritise service delivery needs

CapeTalk's Lester Kiewit is joined by Prof. Jaap de Visser, South African Research Chair in Multilevel Government, Law and Development at the Dullah Omar Institute.

Listen below:

A third ballot paper, allowing voters to signal which municipal service delivery issues should take priority.

That's one of the suggestions of Dr Rajendran Govender, a shortlisted candidate for the Electoral Commission of South Africa.

Govender believes the introduction of a 'third ballot' would help bridge the gap between voters and those they elect.

The proposal, which Govender describes as a participatory budget ballot, would allow voters to indicate which services require the most urgent investment. 

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But would a third ballot work in practice? De Visser says it's an interesting idea...

"It's clear that across many, many municipalities there's a disconnect between residents, communities, and the municipalities... we see community protests almost on a daily basis."

- Prof. Jaap de Visser, South African Research Chair in Multilevel Government, Law and Development - Dullah Omar Institute

De Visser explains what he sees as one of the difficulties of such a process.

"If you use it as a grand survey of what the general population of the city sees as main priorities, you can't really tailor your budget to the outcome of that survey."

- Prof. Jaap de Visser, South African Research Chair in Multilevel Government, Law and Development - Dullah Omar Institute

He suggests a better approach is to ask specific questions at ward level, (but admits this becomes a challenge at national level).

"Like, in this ward, what do we prioritise - do we want more speed humps or do we want an upgrade to the sewer system?"

- Prof. Jaap de Visser, South African Research Chair in Multilevel Government, Law and Development - Dullah Omar Institute

"How do you organise that in a national election, you're going to have to have thousands of surveys per ward, and that's impossible for the IEC to organise."

- Prof. Jaap de Visser, South African Research Chair in Multilevel Government, Law and Development - Dullah Omar Institute

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