Around the world we find several ways that countries are governed. For example, our neighbour Swaziland is a true monarchy or kingdom. Leadership is traditional, inherited, and lifelong. Sometimes a member of an army stages a military coup, and takes power. This is called a military dictatorship, as in Equatorial Guinea where Teodoro Mbasogo has been President since 1979. Sometimes a powerful family create a dictatorship, as is common in the Middle East. Or a group create a one-party state, and one leader or family may rule the party for decades, as in North Korea. In countries like this ordinary people have few political rights.

Can you explain what is different about our government in South Africa? You could look at Chapter 1 of our Constitution, which says we are a democracy, that values:

• Human dignity, the achievement of equality and the advancement of human rights and freedoms.
• Non-racialism and non-sexism.
• Supremacy of the Constitution and the rule of law.
• Universal adult suffrage, a national common voters’ roll, regular elections and a multi-party system of democratic government, to ensure accountability, responsiveness and openness.

In a democracy, we ordinary people have the right to be well-informed about all political parties. This happens by having a free press that can report on all parties, and through all parties being able to freely and safely campaign everywhere. We need to get to know parties and decide if we can believe their promises and if we trust their leaders.

We then have the right to elect the political parties that make up a government and decide how to run the country for us. So we, the voters, have the power to choose the government. For example, there are 400 seats in the National Assembly and parties are given seats according to the number of votes they get in a national election. The party with the most seats has the most power.

The elected government must follow the Constitution. Do you know the saying, ‘Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely’? In South Africa our Constitution helps to stop any government becoming too powerful, and then perhaps being corrupt. This is so because we have the system of ‘separation of powers’. Each part of government controls the power of the other. The three parts of government are:

• In Pretoria: the offices of the Executive which is the President and his or her Ministers.
• In Cape Town: Parliament (the national legislature) where elected national and provincial representatives (MPs) debate issues and pass new laws.
• And in Bloemfontein and Johannesburg: the highest courts of the Judiciary (law courts). They make sure the Constitution is followed, and are separate from the previous two parts.

In Chapter 9, our Constitution also lists six independent institutions that are set up to make sure government works well, and is not corrupt. These are as follows.

• The Public Protector can investigate ‘improper conduct’ by government.
• The Human Rights Commission tries to make sure everyone enjoys human rights.
• The Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic communities promotes the rights of those groups.
• The Auditor General checks how national, provincial and municipal money is spent.
• The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) runs all our elections.

Note that electing a government into power is using only one part of our political rights. In between elections we can use these rights to question what government or any party does. For example we can do this by using the Chapter 9 institutions.

Let’s look at what the political rights in the Constitution mean for every South African.

‘Universal adult suffrage’ means anyone who is eighteen or older, and a citizen, has the right to vote. You take your ID to prove you were born here or have been granted citizenship, and your name is put on the list of voters (voter’s roll). You usually vote where you live. In the past in South Africa (and most other countries) women, black, Indian and coloured people, or those who had lower levels of education or wealth were not allowed to vote. Almost all countries today have universal adult suffrage. However in many of them, for example, women don’t vote because the traditional culture frowns upon it. In some places prisoners convicted of certain crimes are not allowed to vote.

‘Regular elections’ are a way to stop one government being in power too long. The Constitution says we must have provincial and national elections every five years. (They are held on the same day.) So, if we think a government is not working well, we can choose to vote against the main party in power and change it. If we like what the party we voted for is doing, we show our support by voting them in again. (We also have municipal elections every five years to vote in party representatives to run our district or municipality.)

We have ‘a multi-party system’. This means that anyone or any group can start a political party. We vote for parties, not individual people. Voters should be sure that any political party has good ideas that are worth supporting; ideas that support democracy and do not go against the Constitution. Of course, you need a lot of sponsorship and many supporters to set up, run and advertise a political party. You saw in The Great Vote Hunt! how Buyekezwa, Jerome and ‘Mr Rhino’ were volunteering their time. South Africans have lots of choice: 200 parties are registered for the May 7th elections! Every party that gets enough votes will get their representatives into Parliament.

Our elections are run by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), which is not linked to any party. It makes sure that elections are ‘free and fair’. No-one is allowed to scare you into voting for them, or stop you from voting. You read in the story how a woman tried to stop Buyekezwa from campaigning for the DA. This is undemocratic behaviour, and illegal. In a true democracy voters freely choose, and can keep their vote secret if they want to. The IEC and the political parties have people watching at each voting station and vote-counting station. They make sure that voting is free, fair and secret. No-one will ever know which was your ballot paper.

The political party that wins most votes controls the Executive and Legislature arms of government. It chooses who it wants for President, Ministers and Deputy Ministers. It can even choose Ministers from other parties. All the other parties with enough votes choose Members of Parliament (MPs) who can vote for or against what the majority party want to do. These ‘opposition parties’ make sure that people who do not support the majority party have a voice in government. They may even be supported by majority party MPs for some of the issues and laws they want discussed.

In a democracy citizens can use their right to vote in several ways apart from voting for a favoured party. For example, they can boycott (refuse to take part in) an election, or ‘spoil their vote’ by making a mark across the whole ballot paper. The IEC has to count and publish the number of spoiled ballots. If there are lots, it sends a message of discontent. A voter can also make a ‘strategic vote’ and give their vote to another party temporarily to send a message to their favoured party. Or they can vote for one party in provincial or local elections, and another party in national elections.

Remember, none of our leaders would be in parliament without voters – and that includes you! It is important as a citizen in a democracy to make your voice heard – through using your political right to vote.