Preparations underway for smooth voting for voters abroad

Wednesday, December 12, 2018

Plans are underway to ensure a smooth voting process in the 2019 elections for South Africans living abroad.

On Tuesday, International Relations and Cooperation Minister Lindiwe Sisulu 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 DIRCO are hard at work to ensure that South Africans living abroad can vote in all our diplomatic missions. It is very important that the infrastructure is in place so that all South Africans can exercise their democratic right,” said the Minister.

The Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) and the IEC recently signed the cooperation agreement on South African missions abroad, which outlines how the department and the IEC will work together to facilitate the registration and voting process for South Africans living abroad.

The IEC 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 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,” said the department.

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. - SAnews.gov.za