LETTER: A motion of no confidence has its roots in British system
The DA has requested a motion of no confidence in President Jacob Zuma to take place under a secret ballot. As the speaker, Baleka Mbete, has declared that the rules of Parliament do not provide for such a ballot, the Constitutional Court has been approached in this regard for both direct access and to decide whether a secret ballot should take place. The practice of a motion of no confidence has its origin in the [British] Westminster system. The first successful motion of no confidence in British parliamentary history occurred in 1782 at the end of the American Revolution, when, as a result of the defeat of the British forces commanded by Lord Cornwallis at the battle of Yorktown, parliament at Westminster voted that it "no longer has confidence in the present ministers", which was preceded by, according to Constitutional History of England by George Adams, "many motions equivalent to a want of confidence carried against the ministry, before the king [George III] would yield, and ...
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