South African Diplomatic missions around the world will remain open this weekend as part of the IEC‘s final push to ensure South Africans living abroad will be able to cast their ballots in the general election later in 2019.
Prospective voters have to fill out two documents in a process that lasts about 5 minutes and then go to the IEC website once the election day has been proclaimed to complete a third VEC10 form that formally alerts the IEC of the voter’s intention to cast their ballot abroad.
“We’ve been registering people now for about two to three months. We’ve had a steady stream of people coming in to register. We’ve been sending out emails to people on our database. We’ve also put information out on social media. We’ve really gone all out to try and get as many people to come in and register as possible. This is the final push as you can see, it’s all systems go for tomorrow. So, we’ll be open tomorrow and Sunday to register the last number of people still outstanding and we will finish off on Monday,” says South Africa’s Consul General to New York, Mathula Nkosi.
One of those to register as part of the weekend drive was the country’s former Deputy President Dr Phumzile Mlambo-Ngucka who is based at the UN in New York. She was responding to a question about the significance of the upcoming election.
“We have had our challenges as a country, our ups and downs. We have another opportunity now to pick ourselves out and to take a giant leap forward in continuing the project of reconstructing South Africa, ensuring that all of the values that are enshrined in our Constitution are defended in the actions that we take as citizens and the actions that we expect our government to take. So when you come to vote, there’s a sense of renewal, of recommitting yourself to this project – that so many gave their lives for; but also hopefully it reminds also those who are contesting the election that all of us are putting our trust in their hands and we expect them to fulfill their side of the bargain but also we are committing ourselves also to be there so that this is a partnership.”
South African citizens living abroad can register to vote at 120 foreign missions this weekend. The IEC says most of those who have to register are in London and Dubai.
South Africa is one of few African countries making provision for expats to vote in national elections. Embassies around the world are gearing up for voter registration from the first to the fourth of February.
While the numbers may be small.
Political parties say it is the right of South Africans citizens anywhere in the world, to register and vote.
