Johannesbourg, South Africa (ADV) – South Africa said it is ready to conduct voting at the South African diplomatic missions abroad for their diaspora citizens.
The country’s Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Lindiwe Sisulu, recently concluded a meeting with the Commissioners of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) and senior officials of her department where she received a briefing on logistics required to ensure South Africans living abroad exercise their democratic right to vote in the upcoming 2019 general elections.
“From the briefing it is clear that the IEC and our team here at Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) are hard at work to ensure that South Africans living abroad can vote in all our diplomatic missions,” said Sisulu.
DIRCO and the IEC recently signed the Cooperation Agreement on South African missions abroad, which outlines how DIRCO and the IEC will cooperate with each other to facilitate the registration and voting process for South Africans living abroad.
The Cooperation Agreement, signed by Director-General Kgabo Mahoai (DIRCO) and Chief Electoral Officer Sy Mamabolo (IEC), is aimed at giving effect to the Electoral Act 73 of 1998 and applicable regulations which make provision for South African citizens who are outside the Republic to register and vote at a South African embassy, high commission or consulate closest to them.
The Constitution provides in Section 19 (2) that every citizen has the right to free, fair and regular elections for any legislative body established in terms of the Constitution. It further provides in Section 19 (3)(a) that every adult citizen has the right to vote in elections for any legislative body established in terms of the Constitution.
“It is very important that the infrastructure is in place so that all South Africans can exercise their democratic right,” added Sisulu.
In terms of the Cooperation Agreement, the Department shall avail the premises of the missions for registration, voting and any other function that needs to be performed for successful voter registration and voting on the designated days and times.
Since the national and provincial elections of 1999, DIRCO has assisted the IEC with the voting of South African citizens abroad. Ahead of the national and provincial elections of 2014, and following the amendments to the Electoral Act, DIRCO extended its assistance to include voter registration applications through our missions abroad.
The Minister was assured that preparations are well underway across all South African missions abroad for registration weekends, special voting and setting up of infrastructure for voting when the voting dates are announced.
The IEC has declared 1-4 February 2019 as special days for South African diplomatic missions abroad to allow South African citizens to check the status of their registrations and for those who are not registered to submit their applications to be enlisted on the voters roll.
The Minister congratulated the teams on the good work done thus far and further urged them to keep the nation informed and to also meet regularly to iron out any outstanding matters.
Minister Sisulu and the IEC will in 2019 also host a special briefing with members of the diplomatic corps to brief them about the country’s 2019 elections.
– African Daily Voice (ADV)