https://www.polity.org.za
Deepening Democracy through Access to Information
Home / News / All News RSS ← Back
Close

Email this article

separate emails by commas, maximum limit of 4 addresses

Sponsored by

Close

Embed Video

IEC regulations unfair to SA expats - DA

26th January 2009

By: Sapa

SAVE THIS ARTICLE      EMAIL THIS ARTICLE

Font size: -+

The Independent Electoral Commission's regulations barring South Africans working abroad from voting are unconstitutional, the Democratic Alliance said on Monday.

Briefing the media in Cape Town, DA Federal chairman James Selfe said the party last week filed papers in the Cape High Court to have section 33 (1) (e) of the Electoral Act that bars SA expatriates from voting, declared unconstitutional.

"The denial of the right to vote to the vast majority of South Africans was central to the struggle against apartheid. Because of the importance of the right to vote, this right is guaranteed to all adult citizens in the Bill of the Rights," Selfe said.

The Electoral Act only allowed citizens who are abroad on holiday, business, study and international sports, to cast their ballots from outside the country.

"Except for South Africans serving in diplomatic missions, these are only permissible grounds for applying for a special vote if one is outside the country," Selfe said.

The restrictions gave rise to all sorts of anomalies and unintended consequences, "which are clearly unconstitutional".

"It discriminates unreasonably between various classes of South Africans temporarily outside the country," Selfe said.

Meanwhile, the Freedom Front Plus said it would submit an application to the Constitutional Court in a bid to have the same regulation declared unconstitutional.

 

Advertisement
To watch Creamer Media's latest video reports, click here
 
Advertisement

EMAIL THIS ARTICLE      SAVE THIS ARTICLE      FEEDBACK

To subscribe email subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za or click here
To advertise email advertising@creamermedia.co.za or click here


About

Polity.org.za is a product of Creamer Media.
www.creamermedia.co.za

Other Creamer Media Products include:
Engineering News
Mining Weekly
Research Channel Africa

Read more

Subscriptions

We offer a variety of subscriptions to our Magazine, Website, PDF Reports and our photo library.

Subscriptions are available via the Creamer Media Store.

View store

Advertise

Advertising on Polity.org.za is an effective way to build and consolidate a company's profile among clients and prospective clients. Email advertising@creamermedia.co.za

View options

Email Registration Success

Thank you, you have successfully subscribed to one or more of Creamer Media’s email newsletters. You should start receiving the email newsletters in due course.

Our email newsletters may land in your junk or spam folder. To prevent this, kindly add newsletters@creamermedia.co.za to your address book or safe sender list. If you experience any issues with the receipt of our email newsletters, please email subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za