Cyril's big call

Elections analyst Michael Atkins walks Peter Bruce through the bewildering maze of a rapidly approaching Constitutional crisis over our electoral system. The government has ignored advice from its own Ministerial Advisory Committee and is sending a Bill to the president to sign allowing independent candidates to stand for elections against established political parties. The Constitutional Court wants it done by December 10. For that to happen Ramaphosa would have perhaps a week to think of a way to remedy a flawed piece of legislation. "They have simply chosen an absurd electoral system that cannot work," says Atkins. By December 10 though, Ramaphosa will either have to sign or send the Bill back for improvement. The IEC, meanwhile, has precious little time to reconfigure its systems. The election is in 2024, In political terms, in IEC terms, that's like, tomorrow. It is going to get messy. ends