Recommendations to the Minister October 2017: Recommendation 4

Recommendations to the Minister by the National Forum October 2017

RECOMMENDATION 4
Section 97(1)(a)(iv): The National Forum must make recommendations to the Minister on the manner in which the Provincial Councils must be elected.

4.1.    RECOMMENDATION:
S97(1)(a)(iv) of the Act requires the National Forum to recommend to the Minister the manner in which the Provincial Councils must be elected. Apart from the provisions of s97(1)(a)(iv) there are no other enabling provisions in the Act for the Minister to make Regulations on the manner of election of the Provincial Councils.

S97(1)(a)(iv) appears to be in conflict with s23(4) and s95(1)(j), which require the Council to make Rules to provide for the election of Provincial Councils. On this basis it is recommended that the election of Provincial Councils be dealt with in the Rules and not in the Regulations.

4.2.    MOTIVATION:
The reason for the recommendation is that S97(1)(a)(iv) provides that the National Forum must make recommendations to the Minister on the manner in which the Provincial Councils must be elected, but there is no provision in s94 (which lists the required Regulations) for the election of Provincial Councils.  S23(4) as well as s95(1)(j) requires that the election of Provincial Councils should be dealt with in the Rules. It is therefore recommended that the election procedure be contained in the Rules.

The National Forum has drafted Rules for the election of Provincial Councils, which are modelled on the election of the Legal Practitioners to serve on the Council.  Rule 16 provides for the election of Provincial Councils. Copies of draft Rule 16 and the draft ballot papers are contained in Appendix “C” hereto.