THE SOUTH African government has earmarked April 22nd as the preferred date for this year’s general election, but a recent high court ruling on the right to vote of citizens living abroad may delay the poll.
Interim president Kgalema Motlanthe announced yesterday that the government and the country’s independent electoral commission (IEC) had agreed that the date was the appropriate one for voters to cast their ballots in what many believe will be the closest election in the fledgling democracy’s 15-year history.
“It’s midweek on a Wednesday and we have agreed upon this date with the IEC and all the provincial premiers. I must, however, emphasise that the actual proclamation of this date will be made later.
“With this coming election, the maturisation of our democracy receives yet another shot in the arm,” Mr Motlanthe said.
However, the Pretoria high court found on Monday that current laws breached the rights of most of the almost two million South Africans living abroad, because at present only government employees and people on holiday or business trips can vote outside the country on election day.
Judge Piet Ebersohn ordered the government and the IEC to rectify the discrimination in the law “extending the right to special votes to all categories absent from the republic of South Africa”.
He added that the decision “to disqualify certain classes of voter, like the applicant, from voting was a political decision and not one of necessity”. The legal application was brought to the Pretoria high court by the opposition Afrikaner nationalist Freedom Front Plus (FFP) party on behalf of a South African schoolteacher living in the UK.
Speaking after the judgment, FFP spokesperson Willie Spies said it was possible the constitutional court could overrule the high court’s judgement.
It is believed the logistics involved in ensuring that registration and voting facilities would be available to allow South Africans to take part in the general election would be the main reason for any delay to the poll.
The high court has referred its ruling to the constitutional court, which will begin reviewing the judgment today.
Analysts believe if the ruling is upheld the opposition parties are likely to benefit the most from the extra votes up for grabs.
Many of those who have left South Africa over the past 10 years believe the ruling African National Congress is not doing enough to fight crime and that its affirmative action policies discriminate against whites.