The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) is encouraging eligible voters who will not be at their voting station on voting day to make an application with the IEC to vote at any other station in the country.
The window period for this Section 24A application ends on 17 May.
At previous general elections, voters who wanted to vote outside their voting stations would simply fill in Section 24A forms at a voting station of their choice, without pre-notification. This is no longer the case.
Now this form must be completed by 17 May. This also applies to those who will be travelling abroad or for work on election day.
The IEC says the change has come about because the system has in the past been abused by those who wanted to defraud the system and vote more than once.
“So, previously people would go to the voting station and fill the form, that affidavit that says they are registered to vote but they are not at the voting station where they are registered and now they have to pre-apply or pre-notify the IEC of their whereabouts during the election day so that we make provision for you to be given the ballot that you deserve – the three ballot papers that are part of the framework for provincial and national elections this time around,“ says the IEC’s outreach co-ordinator in KwaZulu-Natal, Dr Nonhlanhla Hlongwane.
Hlongwane says the new provision is different from the special votes application process, which opens in April.
“Unlike the special votes provision, special votes are votes that are special in that they happen two days before the actual voting day. So those are applications, they can be approved or declined. We encourage people that are for some reason, either cannot walk to the voting station themselves to apply for the special votes privilege.”
If you vote inside the province where you are registered, you will receive three ballot papers: the national, regional and provincial ballot papers. If you vote outside the province where you are registered, you will receive the national ballot paper only.
Eligible voters have until 17 May to submit Section 24A applications to the IEC, either online or in person. The process is simple and quick, taking less than five minutes.
