Voters who will be away from their voting district on the day of the election have been encouraged to register for special votes with the IEC. IEC Northern Cape head, Bonolo Modise, says the application for special votes opened on Monday and will run until April 17th.
He says the special votes will be conducted on the 5th and 6th of May.
“The provisions are that people with physical disability or pregnant women, individuals who will be absent from their voting districts, while serving as an officer in the election, or if you are on duty as a member of the security services, you will be allowed to apply to vote on the 5th and 6th of May when we administer special votes. South Africans, who believe that on elections day they would not be at their stations, will also be eligible to apply for special votes.”
Labour union Nehawu and the IEC will meet again in seven days to iron out issues that have threatened to put the May 7th general elections in jeopardy. This, after some 600 of the IEC’s 900 fulltime workforce, who are Nehawu members, threatened to down tools.
Workers are up in arms over the commission’s refusal to recognize Nehawu as a majority union, among other things.
Nehawu spokesperson Sizwe Phamla says: “They want the forum. They agree with us, but they want a powerless forum that is not going to dwell into the issues that are deeper like salaries. By back tracking, we think that they are really showing that they are taking chances and taking workers for granted and that kind of approach is the one that actually end up pushing the workers on the brink.”
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