S 28 PROCESS FOR ELECTIONS OF ANC LEADERS AND MANAGING SUCCESSION

S 28   PROCESS FOR ELECTIONS OF ANC LEADERS AND MANAGING SUCCESSION

Noting

• The need to elect leaders according to the principles of service, track record, capacity, integrity, discipline, honesty, trust-worthiness, and representivity as outlined in the Eye of a Needle.
• The current distortion of our election process through factional practices like slates, vote-buying, patronage, intimidation, and exclusion that deny us the best possible collectives of leaders
• We need processes that deepen democracy and the trust that the people we serve have in ANC leaders
• The fact that we are using an electoral college system that is easily manipulatable through influencing a core of influential people, like branch, regional and provincial secretaries, who manage the membership and deployment system. This makes our democratic process vulnerable to corruption by business, internal factions and outside interests.
• The lack of representation of motive forces among our leaders and the predominance of people deployed to government

RESOLVES

1. To establish a permanent Election Commission in the ANC, that is not composed of elected leadership, but should be made up of comrades with no direct interest or conflict of interest in leadership positions, elected by the NEC, responsible for managing the nominations and election of ANC leadership at all levels.
2. The tasks of such Electoral Commission should be to propose the rules and procedures for elections to the NEC, deal with disputes, screen candidates, order lifestyle audits if needed, and oversee the management of the nomination and election process. 
3. Nominations processes should make slate nomination impossible, by limiting the number of leaders each branch can nominate for positions in NEC, PEC, REC (for example 20 for NEC out of 60 to avoid block votes or nominations). 
4. Slate voting should be outlawed and practices that allow for unifying voting should be encouraged. One is separating the vote for each official and announcement of result for each position, before voting for the next one. This allows a conference to accommodate a losing candidate to fill a deputy or other position.
5. The EC Ensure that those contesting leadership positions declare their interests, including the amount and sources of money for campaigning, in line with ANC Finance Policies and Code of Ethics. Also deal with conflict of interest issues in candidate selection of public office. 
6. The election of leadership in all structures must ensure continuity as well as renewal. 
7. The NEC must agree on a formula to cap the percentage of NEC members deployed in government. 
8. Nominations and elections should result in better representation for the motive forces and we should consider ways of achieving this
9. Agrees on the Youth League proposal for a quota (25-40%) in all leadership positions to be reserved for youth.
10. Consideration should be given to extending the provision for gender equity to the top officials positions in all structures.
11. The NEC should manage the two centres of power after National Conference.