Most foreign SA voters in London
ALMOST 30 000 South African citizens living abroad will cast their votes on April 27 – Freedom Day – for the upcoming national elections, and the majority of them live in London.
Dubai has the second-highest number of registered South African voters living there.
This was revealed by the Electoral Commission of SA’s (IEC) deputy electoral officer, Mawethu Mosery, when he addressed academics and students at the University of South Africa (Unisa) in Pretoria about their state of readiness for the upcoming poll.
He said the total number of voters living abroad was 29 334, with most of them living in Europe.
“Europe has a total of 14800 eligible voters. The majority of those voters – 9000 – live in London. Dubai has the second-highest number, 1542, followed by The Hague, which has 1355 eligible South African voters living there,” Mosery said.
He said the high number of voters in London had prompted the IEC’s chief electoral officer, Sy Mamabolo, to visit the city and arrange logistics enabling them to cast their votes. Mosery said due to the high number of voters, they could not use the facilities at the South African Embassy in London.
Mosery stood in for Mamabolo, who was supposed to have addressed the Unisa students and staff.
According to him, the IEC has a similar problem in Joubert Park, Joburg, which has the highest number of voters living in that area, but he said plans were being made for them to vote at different voting stations.
Mosery said the IEC had already certified its voters roll, which has a total of 26.7 million voters, adding that it was a slight increase from 2014. The IEC had 25.14 million people on the voters roll in 2014.
Mosery revealed that more than 14 million eligible voters for these elections were women, and 12 million were men.
“We have 55% women on the voters roll and 45% men. Limpopo has the highest proportion – 59% – of women on the voters roll, while other provinces have up to 55%,” he said.
However, he said more than 4 million voters would have to produce their residential addresses at the polling stations before they could cast their votes on May8.
Mosery said the IEC had verified the addresses of 22.4 million voters, while 1.4 million people had no addresses and 2.4 million of them had incomplete addresses.
A total of 18000 candidates are contesting 826 seats in the national and provincial legislatures throughout the country.