TESSA DOOMS | People must take back power to fire and hire through our vote at polls

On June 8 2023 the Groundwork Collective, a new non-profit organisation led by former politician-turned-community activist Mbali Ntuli, launched an exciting voter registration campaign called X_Change in partnership with the Independent Electoral Commission.

With slogans like “Democracy needs your voice” and “Your vote is your impact” the campaign seeks to inspire young people to vote with messages that call on an exercise of power rather than of duty.

It’s a campaign that does not centre the election or the parties, it centres the experience of the voter, recognising that ultimately voters decide elections. “Every election is determined by the people who show up.” These words by political scientist Larry J Sabato often ring in my head as a harsh truism of electoral politics. No matter what we think of the options on a ballot or the outcome, elections are decided by the people who show up.

In SA fewer and fewer people are showing up. In the last election in 2021, out of a possible 40-million voters (people 18 years and older), less than 26-million were registered and just over 12-million showed up. Only 28% of voting-age people decided the election on behalf of the entire country.

That is not to say that people who choose not to vote have no bearing on the election outcome. They do in at least two ways. First, by staying away people are making political statements about the poor quality of the choices.

Poor voter turnout does reflect poorly on the quality of the people and parties on the ballot. In a country where parties that have governed are failing in spectacular fashion, on many fronts, the fact that opposition parties are not easily able to galvanise voters is a reflection on the offerings they make.

When the bar for governance is as low as it has been set in the past 29 years, simply being the party that is better than a failing government at best means that your party is losing the race to the bottom rather than winning the race to the top.

“At least we are not the ANC” as an electioneering strategy inspires no hope in an increasingly discouraged electorate. By staying away voters do signal a need for politicians to do and be better.

Second, and more consequentially, by not showing up we make it easier for even poor-quality parties to win by large margins. It works to the favour of incumbent politicians when people stay away. All they need to do is rally their bases, no matter how small, to get a big impact. Staying away from the polls does not harm the chances of parties, it helps them.

In 2019, the ANC won approximately 10-million votes to win by 57%.  Had all voters showed up, the ANCs 10-million votes would have seen it at 30% of the vote, needing to do much better if it wanted to govern outright with 50% plus one percent.

These consequences of low voter turnout are not to shame people who choose not to vote, but to signal the opportunities if we vote as collectives with a shared purpose. Voting is a group project where we all contribute our small part to elect a government. Politicians and parties know this.

The majority of voters are often discouraged from even talking about their votes with others before casting them.

Perhaps it is time to amplify our power with the millions of voters discouraged by current options, disappointed by the outcomes and feel like one vote won't count, by showing up and out voting even the biggest parties.

Instead of voting as lone voices, 2024 is an opportunity for us to turn up as communities, interest groups, citizens who share similar concerns and people with shared demands for those seeking to be voted for.

For this to happen we must begin dialogues about what our shared interests are, what our standards for elected leaders are and what our collective strategy is for using our overwhelming numbers as the power to decide the outcome of the election.

Voters have the power to fire and hire through the vote. If we do that, the 2024 elections will centre the voter not the politician, returning power to the people.