Jaap de Visser reflects on coalition politics and six ideas for law reform to further the debate on what role, if any, the law can play in ensuring that governance in so-called 'hung councils' improves.
Jaap de Visser
The first observation is that coalitions at municipal level are here to stay. The electoral system for local government is, as instructed by the Constitution, based on proportionality. It is simply not designed to produce an outright winner. While there often are outright winners in municipal elections, it is a mistake to think that coalitions are an anomaly. The quickest we adjust our thinking from"condemning" coalitions to examining how to improve them, the better.
Executive committees work differently: the political composition of the executive committee is largely fixed by law and thus not subject to majority rule. Coalition negotiations can then focus on the position of the mayor, the chief whip and committee chairs. Importantly, when the coalition collapses and the mayor is removed from office, the rest of the executive committee stays on. It thus makes for a more stable governance system for hung councils.
Other suggestions are for a municipality to firm up its rules and orders to disallow multiple"similar" motions of no-confidence or even limit the tabling of such motions to certain window periods.In a hung council, the election of the mayor, speaker and chief whip is a key expression of a coalition agreement, however fickle that agreement may be. Currently, the law insists that these elections are held by secret ballot.
After the general elections, the law insists that the newly elected council elects its main office-bearers within 14 days. In a hung council, this period is woefully short. Negotiating a proper coalition agreement takes longer. In the aftermath of the 2021 municipal elections, the result of this unreasonable deadline was that"the tail was wagging the dog".
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