ANT KATZ

First and foremost, is to ensure that you are on the voters roll, and where your polling station is. This is actually very easy. The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) runs a most efficient service. Simply SMS your ID number to 32810 (R1 per SMS) and within seconds you will get a reply telling you what ward and voting station you are registered at.

The second thing many, or most voters are confused about is the fact that we hold two separate elections in South Africa: The local government (also known as municipal) elections – which we will be holding on August 3, and the national and provincial elections which were last held in 2014.

At each of these elections, voters get two ballot papers. In the case of the latter, which is not relevant now, it is simple – we vote for a party, not a candidate; on one ballot voters choose the party they would like to run their province, and on the other who they would like to run the country.

Municipal elections

In the August 3 municipal election, everyone who votes also receives two ballot papers. In these elections, however, the ballots are for something different. One is for the ward councillor, and the other for the proportional representative (PR) vote.

It is fairly easy to understand the ward councillor voting system. Basically, of all the candidateswho are standing in your ward, the person who receives the most votes becomes the ward councillor.

However, what confuses many is just how the PR vote works – and how important it is. “It is fairly complicated,” a political pundit told Jewish Report this week.

Essentially, half of the seats on the Council are allocated on the basis of PR votes. What most voters don’t realise is the importance and power of their own vote on the final composition of their Council.

This often results in voters making the mistake of thinking they are in a safe ward for the party they would have chosen and so they do not vote. Wrong! One’s vote has far more value than that – even if one thinks one knows what the ward outcome will be.

The paragraph below is taken directly from the IEC website:

In metropolitan and local councils, half of the council seats are allocated to directly elected ward councillors (ward ballot paper) and the other half are allocated to political parties on the basis of the results of the PR ballot paper. The ward councillors are elected first and then the remaining seats are allocated to political parties based on proportional representation. The PR allocation takes into account how many ward seats a party has already won to make sure that the final number of seats a party has does not exceed the percentage of the vote which they won.

However, the actual calculation of the proportional vote (which, remember, will inform the appointment of half of ones’ Council) is actually quite complicated.

In calculating the proportional vote, all the votes for ward councillors representing a political party in the whole city plus all the PR votes for the political parties in the whole city are added together.

Any votes for independent ward councillors are not included.

So, for example, if there were 1 005 000 ward votes cast in the whole city, and 1 005 000 PR votes cast in the whole city, but of the ward votes 10 000 were for independent candidates, then the total number of votes making up the total proportional vote would be 995 000 ward votes plus 1 005 000 PR votes which equals 2 000 000 votes.

If a party received 1 000 000 combined votes out of 2 000 000 total votes, they would be entitled to 50 per cent of the council seats. As an example, let us look at a council that has a total of 100 seats. A party that won 50 per cent of the combined PR vote would then be entitled to have 50 seats on the council.

However, if for example they had already won 30 ward seats, they would then only receive an additional 20 PR councillors, to give them a total of 50 councillors.

On the other hand, a party that received 10 per cent of the combined PR vote, would be entitled to 10 councillors. If they did not win any wards they would then receive 10 PR councillors.

So, looking at these examples one can see how critical it is to ensure that every possible supporter of your party comes out to vote, as ultimately it is the total number of votes that a party receives in the entire city that determines how many seats they eventually get.

Remember that even if you believe you are in a safe ward for the party or candidate you would choose, it is still important that as many people as possible come and vote for both the ward councillor and the PR vote.

In other words, every vote counts – and for more than we tend to realise!