Voter registration weekend for SA expats excludes Israel, Sudan and Ukraine – Sy Mamabolo

In a first, South Africans living and working abroad can now register online to vote in this year’s provincial and national elections. This weekend, on 26, 37 and 28 January, they will also have the opportunity to register in person at diplomatic missions. However, Chief Electoral Officer Sy Mamabolo said that in-person registration will not be available for South Africans in Israel, Ukraine and Israel as the Department of International Relations and Cooperation, which are their overseas partners, has indicated that these three diplomatic missions are not operational. In an interview with Biznews, Mamabolo said that he would however encourage voters in those countries to register online in the event of any changes to the security situation. He said Statistics South Africa has estimated that approximately 2 million South Africans are living abroad, but in the 2019 elections only 19,000 votes were cast ‘out of country.’ He expressed the hope that there are going to be many expats taking part in the coming elections more this election as it is now much easier to register for the elections. Overseas voters would still have to go to diplomatic missions to vote on the day and the IEC indicated that it would not be able to increase the number of voting stations, as requested by the Democratic Alliance, without legislative amendment. Mamabolo said he was encouraged by the trend of increased registration among young people, noting that 78% of new registrations during the registration weekend in November were from the youth. Despite some uncertainties, Mamabolo said the IEC was ready for the election which could for the first time have a two-page ballot. He also revealed that Elon Musk’s Twitter or X has “been a bit difficult” and have not signed a cooperation agreement that the IEC negotiated with other tech giants to combat misinformation.