National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete announced yesterday afternoon that the motion of no confidence vote in President Jacob Zuma will be held through a secret ballot today. But what does that entail?
Here is an overview of what will happen when the doors to Parliament are closed this afternoon.
At 2pm, a plenary will be held where the leader of the opposition will be putting through motions in terms of Section 102 (2) of the Constitution of “no confidence” in President Jacob Zuma on the grounds of “continued irrational, irresponsible and reckless leadership”.
The process:
• Business will be suspended at the National Assembly and a debate on the motion of no confidence will be held beforehand, based on the motions put through by the leader of the opposition.
• Afterwards, bells will be rung in order to resume business and the doors to the National Assembly will be locked for voting.
• Mbete will announce how the voting procedure will work when MPs cast their vote.
• A ballot paper with the options yes, no or abstain will be given to each MP.
• Two ballot boxes and four private voting booths will be available for MPs to cast their votes, one of which has wheelchair access.
• Voting will be happen in alphabetical order, and members will be called up accordingly to cast their votes.
• In order to ensure that all votes are cast, ballot papers will be stamped as they are handed to each member.
• Names of members who cast their votes will be crossed off a control sheet, that will bear all MPs’ names.
• Members will have to make a clear cross next to one of three options and will only be allowed a single vote.
• Once all the votes are in, Mbete will announce that the ballot boxes be sealed.
• The speaker will request one designated member from each party to witness the counting of the votes.
• All votes will be counted under the supervision of the speaker and party representatives, in a counting room monitored by the serjeant-at-arms and Parliamentary Protection Services.
• The ballot boxes will be opened with the speaker and party whips or representatives present.
• The votes will then be sorted counted and audited.
• Once all counts are in, the secretary to the speaker of the National Assembly will sign off the results.
• Bells will be rung to alert members that business has resumed and the speaker will announce the results of the vote in the chambers of the National Assembly.