WC IEC appeals to voters to apply for special vote on time

Source: EWN Traffic
Author: Lindsay Dentlinger

CAPE TOWN - The country's seventh national election is just six weeks away and the Electoral Commission (IEC) in the Western Cape is appealing to voters to consider whether they need to apply for a special vote.

Applications for home visits for the elderly and infirm to cast their votes are also now open until 3 May.

Those who will be travelling, and not in their home province, also need to apply to the IEC for a special vote either abroad or out of the province.

The IEC's Western Cape head, Michael Hendrickse, explained the options.

"We want voters to cast their minds forward and say: 'Where am I going to be?' If you are going overseas, you have until the 22nd of April to inform us that you are going overseas and at which embassy you will be at so that we can prepare that embassy. If you want a special vote, you have between today and the third of May to apply for a special vote, in other words say, I don't want to vote on election day at my station, I want to vote on the 27th or the 28th at my voting station."

If a voter intends to cast a ballot at a station outside their home province, they will only receive a national ballot and not a provincial or regional ballot paper as well.

"If you want to vote on election day but not at your station, it's important for voters to remember that you can't come there on election day. You need to have notified us by the 17th of May."