It was unfair that prisoners have a better chance of voting than South Africans living abroad. This was according to Adrian Rose, the DA’s Deputy Shadow Minister of Home Affairs was speaking to BizNews.
There is a dispute between the DA, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), and the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) regarding the difficulties faced by South Africans living abroad when trying to register and vote at overseas missions.
The dispute follows after voters in Perth, Australia discovered that they could only vote at the South African High Commission in Canberra, while South Africans living in Malta will have to travel to Rome to vote.
Rose said that the DA has given the IEC and DIRCO an ultimatum to consider the inclusion of so-called honorary consulates, like Perth, as voting stations.
Rose added that the DA wants DIRCO and the IEC to increase the number of voting stations abroad by adding an extra 6-10 within the present legislation.
Rose disagreed that there were financial constraints to adding extra overseas voting stations; the government receives additional tax revenue from many overseas South Africans.
He also said that while the government has set a target of getting 100 000 prisoners out of about 127 000 prisoners to vote, there are no similar targets for voters overseas.
According to Rose, South Africans living overseas have a constitutional right to vote, and the government should take necessary steps to ensure that they can vote without any difficulties.