READ IN FULL: ConCourt ruling on secret ballot

Image: Gallo Images / Foto24 / Leanne Stander President Jacob Zuma in the National Assembly. File photo.

The Constitutional Court on Thursday ruled that a secret ballot is permissible in a vote on a motion of no confidence against President Jacob Zuma.

The United Democratic Movement (UDM) approached the court last month‚ asking it to order that the vote be conducted by secret ballot.

Mogoeng said the court could not make such an order‚ given the separation of powers doctrine‚ but the ruling put the decision in the hands of National Assembly speaker Baleka Mbete.

"It is declared that the Speaker of the National Assembly has the constitutional power to prescribe that voting in a no confidence motion in the president be conducted by secret ballot‚" chief justice Mogoeng Mogoeng said in a unanimous judgment.

READ THE FULL JUDGMENT BELOW:

ConCourt secret ballot judgment by SundayTimesZA on Scribd