www.thesouthafrican.com
7 - 13 January 2014
Issue 547
SA VOTER REGISTRATION NOW OPEN IN LONDON
| If you’re not yet registered to vote in the 2014 national election you may now do so at the South African High Commission in London - but hurry, you’ve only got one month! by STAFF REPORTER THE END of Apartheid saw South Africa’s first democratic elections in 1994. The Bill of Rights, a key part of our famously progressive constitution, ensures the democratic right to have your vote counted. In 2009 the Constitutional Court extended that privilege to South Africans living abroad, and a few weeks ago President Jacob Zuma signed into law the Electoral Amendment Bill, which not only formalises the right to vote abroad but gives South Africans abroad the right to register overseas to vote. The 2014 presidential elections mark 20 years of democracy and are also especially significant as those born after apartheid’s end – the born frees – will get their first opportunity to have their voices heard. “Not only is it our right to vote, it’s our responsibility. Our country has come a long way, and many people have made tremendous sacrifices to get us here – we owe it to them to vote” – Vote Home, a DA Abroad initiative. Registration for the 2014 elections has now opened for South Africans abroad. Provided you are able to make the often great distance to your nearest South African foreign mission (embassy, High Commission or consulate), voting should be a simple process. First-time voters living abroad must register themselves as voters before 7 February 2014; people who have voted before must look out for the President’s
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proclamation of the Election Date (TheSouthAfrican.com will announce this as soon as it happens). Once the Election Date is finalised, South African foreign missions will make available the VEC-10 form which all South Africans wanting to vote abroad must fill in and return (within 15 days of the announcement of the election date) to the foreign mission at which they intend to vote. To deal with any confusion, we have prepared a few Frequently Asked Questions (with contact
details for the Independent Electoral Commission at end of article). Question 1: I have never voted before and have never registered to vote before. I want to vote outside South Africa in 2014. A. If you have never registered to vote before, and you want to vote outside South Africa in 2014, you must go to the nearest South African embassy, consulate or High Commission and register. To register, you will need to apply in person with your
(1) passport as well as (2) identification (in the form of a green, bar-coded South African Identity Document, smartcard ID or a valid Temporary Identity Document. If you have both (1) and (2), you will be allowed to register. Once the Special Registration Officer has verified that you’re eligible to apply, you will complete a registration form and will then be given a Proof of Registration Application form. This is not proof of registration, but only that you applied. You can
confirm your registration status online at www.elections.org.za/ content/For-voters/My-voterregistration-details 7 working days after applying. Once you know that you are registered, you will have to complete a second form, called the VEC-10 form, in order to be able to vote at a South African foreign mission. This form is not yet available: it will only be available once the President actually announces the date of the election, and it must then be completed within 15 days of the announcement of the election date. He has to do this after 9 February 2014, which is two days after voter registration closes. So you cannot register to vote after 7 February, but, once you have registered, you must still complete the VEC-10 form and send it back (within 15 days of the announcement of voting day) to the SA foreign mission where you intend to vote. On Election Day, having registered and having sent in a VEC-10 form to an SA foreign mission, you must then go to the same foreign mission where you sent the VEC-10 form and vote there. Question 2: I have never voted before, but I have registered continued on page 2
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