The Democratic Alliance’s candidate list for the 2016 Municipal Elections is shocking. It seems that Mayor Wolmarans is demoted and Deputy Mayor Esme Edge booted out the game whilst seven newcomers are brought on during injury time.

After you view the list, ask yourself if our politicians are chosen because of their service to our town or because Cape Town, the DA dictator, said so. Voting for who we’re told to vote for isn’t a democracy.

Understand how the system works…

Ward Councillors are outright winners guaranteed a seat on the Knysna Council. In the past, there were 10 wards but with the new election, there will be 11. That extra ward, a mostly black area, is expected to be won by the ANC. That has sent local politics into a frenetic spin because, as it stands now, it would mean the ANC winning back the town from the DA.

But counter-machinations are afoot. The DA co-opted COPE Councillor Elrick van Aswegen. He was in alliance with the opposition but since he was given a seat on the Mayoral Council (MAYCO), he tends to vote with the DA. That move keeps the DA in the power game…

…but ICOSA has entered the arena, geared more towards gaining votes from coloureds who feel that their history is a litter of both failed ANC and DA promises. If ICOSA wins a seat or two, they could decide whose King of Knysna.

That makes the proportional representative (PR) candidates very important.

After the ward councillors are chosen, the remaining council positions are allocated according to who got the next most votes. These are called PR councillors. In Knysna’s next election, there will be 10 of these.

i.e. 11 Ward councillors and 10 PR councillors = 21 positions up for grabs.

If a candidate for a ward loses that battle, they could still get onto the Council if they are on the PR lists (which explains the doubling of names on the lists below).

Political parties will contest a ward even if they know they’re guaranteed to lose it because every vote counts towards the PR field.

Independents are not allowed to be on a PR list. In that way, “democracy” is rigged in favour of political parties.

Let’s now focus on the DA’s 2016 Municipal candidate list in Part 2.