ELECTION NEWS - On Saturday 27 April South Africans living and/or travelling abroad, had an opportunity to vote in South Africa's national elections amid cries from expats who felt it was too difficult for them to vote. They cited long distances from the voting booths as the main reason.

The IEC announced on Thursday last week that the voting stations would be open for a full 24 hours to accommodate them from sunrise in Auckland New Zeeland to Los Angeles, USA. Voting hours were also extended at four foreign missions – London, Los Angeles and New York – to accommodate Jewish voters celebrating the sabbath on Saturday.

Altogether 29 334 registered South Africans abroad had approval to vote at the South African Missions, Consulates and Embassies indicated on their VEC10 applications. 

South African diplomats who have been trained as official election staff by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) supplemented by senior IEC staff, deployed to high-density overseas voting sites such as London and Dubai to assisted the voters who needed a valid South African ID document and passport to cast their ballots.

Ballots counted in SA
After the South Africans voted, the ballots were sealed and transported back to the national office of the IEC in diplomatic bags. At the close of voting on elections day in South Africa at 21:00 on 8 May, the returned overseas ballots will be opened by electoral officials, counted and added to the national ballot count for each party in the national elections under the scrutiny of approved election observers and party agents.

South African voters were also reminded that taking pictures of their marked ballots was a criminal offence and voters in London, who used to take pictures of themselves in front of the iconic South Africa House embassy on Trafalgar Square, were disappointed as the Embassy was hosting a cultural festival. Instead SA voters were requested to queue at Ducannon Street (alongside the High Commission which was closed to traffic).

But last week also saw an outcry on social media by South Africans abroad bemoaning the reality that there were not enough voting stations for them and they could not register as voters by post. Many decried the fact that they had to make two trips to their nearest South African missions - one to register and another to vote. Only a fraction of the 70 000 South Africans said to be resident in the US voted.

Long journey
One, a journalist working in Boston, understood that this meant they had to undertake two trips which entailed either four-hour journeys by road to the consulate in New York or an hour flight and expensive cab-fares for the airport and back. 

"For the large ex-pat community in Florida it's an even longer flight to DC."

Another, Eve MaCaskill, resident in Auckland, New Zeeland, said she and her husband, both elderly, would have had to take overnight trips to the High Commission in Wellington and back to vote or pay for flights and accommodation. "Most South Africans live in Auckland," she said.

On Monday Olivia Nagan and Trevor Davids from the IEC press office told Knysna-Plett Herald that South Africans, that were already on the voting role in South Africa, did not need to re-register in person abroad. "They can just let their nearest mission know of their change of address and re-register online," he said. The fact that in some larger countries, South Africans still had to travel far to cast their vote however, still "remained a challenge", Nagan said. (Someone living in Denver, Colorado for instance would have to embark on a 15-hour journey by car or pay for a three-hour return flight plus accommodation to Los Angeles or Chicago.)

Countering reckless speculation that the difficulties facing South Africans voting overseas were somehow orchestrated Davids said: "Overseas votes have always worked in this way.

"Nothing has changed. Besides, it's about logistics and funds, setting up the infrastructure and all the safety measures for each satellite station with only a few voters would be an impossible task."

He added that, even though South Africa is far advanced in technology compared to most other countries, it has not yet reached the level where South African abroad can cast postal votes.

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