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S.Africa's 2-million expats win fight for equal voting rights

 

  Adriana Stuijt   votes | comments | Subscribe to author

WillemRichter_SAExpatTeacherUKsuesForVotingRightsAbroad20009 Willem Richter

March 12 2009 - South African teacher Willem Richter, working abroad temporarily, has won the first two legs of his law suit against the ANC- government, in which the Pretoria High- and Constitutional Courts now have ruled that 2-million SA expats must be granted equal voting rights even if they are abroad.

This means expats can cast votes at embassies

previous stories here, here and also here

Only 14 days to register for voting:

Constitutional Court Justice Kate O'Regan has also ordered that all the expat-voters must be given the administrative facilities by the Electoral Commission which enables them to register their intention to vote by March 27 -- i.e. the expats now only have a meagre fourteen days left in which to register.

The right to vote has symbolic, democratic value
Justice O'Regan said in her first ruling that the right to vote 'has a symbolic and democratic value' and that the Electoral Commission has to adjust its rules accordingly. She thus agrees with an earlier order by the Pretoria High Court -- issued on behalf of applicant Willem Richter, a Pretoria school teacher in the UK, and the Freedom Front Plus party -- that all South African citizens have equal voting rights, even if they happen to be working abroad.

  • The Constitutional Court application was also joined by the Inkatha Freedom Party, the Democratic Alliance, the A-Party, the Afriforum civil rights group and twelve other South African citizens who live overseas at the moment.
  • All these parties have already argued successfully that it was their constitutional right to vote.

They submitted that it was moreover, unconstitutional not to allow them to vote abroad under the present rules of the Electoral Act and O’Regan agreed with the earlier Pretoria High Court judgment ruling laid down in this regard on behalf of Richter in February -- which had ordered that the minister of home affairs and the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) must extend the right to "special votes"(absentee ballots) to all categories of registered voters who are away from South Africa at the moment.

Two of the country's highest courts now have ordered the Electorial Commission to amend its regulations accordingly.

ANC rushed through election date:
The caretaker-ANC cabinet has meanwhile, already rushed through the announcement of the election date for April 22 without waiting for this Constitutional Court decision.

This entire court battle for equal voting rights for all South Africa is particularly ironic because so many members of this same ANC-cabinet have themselves also spent many years in exile during their struggle against apartheid, and were also consistently denied the right to vote by the Afrikaner-ruled National Party.

Picture: Nobel Peace Laureate and ex-president Frederick de Klerk of South Africa has come out in strong support of the egal battle by 2-million expats for their voting rights at foreign missions, being waged by teacher Willem Richter.

More than one-third of the 3-million-strong white Afrikaner minority in South Africa have already left the country of their birth, mostly young couples, who are forced to leave their elders behind while seeking new lives for themselves.

I have for instance, discovered pockets of young Afrikaner exile families in 48 different countries thus far - as far afield as Iceland, Norway and Dubai, and down under in Australia, New Zealand and even in China and Paraguay.

The ANC-government greatly fears the political impact of such a large body of expat-voters on the country's next election on April 22. That's why they have so consistently opposed the applications throughout all the court procedures, which were started in November by the Freedom Front Plus party.

The South African government's Home Affairs Department and the Independent Electoral Commission both opposed the applications -- at high cost to the taxpayers -- claiming it 'would be a logistical nightmare to ensure that all citizens could cast their ballots overseas; that they 'simply don't have the facilities or the manpower at foreign legations'.

They were allowed to vote before - why not now?
However it's been done before without any kind of 'logistical problems": the last time all South Africans working and living abroad were able to vote was in the first democratic election in 1994 - and many hundreds of thousands then voted without any kind of 'logistical problems', mainly in the United Kingdom, opposition party leaders point out.

  • The British Broadcasting Corporation says in a seperate report earlier this month that there's at least 600,000 South Africans living and working in the UK alone - and more than 2-million in some 46 other countries, mainly forced abroad.

There are two main reasons for this brain-drain from South Africa: they seek work because of the ANC-regime's own black-economic-empowerment job reservation laws, which bar the vst majority of even the most skilled 'whites' such as doctors, nurses and educators from working in the country of their birth since 1994.

The second reason for the brain-drain is the country's unprecedented violent crime rate, and the ANC-government's growing support of 'rogue nations' such as Zimbabwe, Iran, Cuba and the Palestine.see

At the moment, the clock is ticking for the country's expats who want to vote on April 22 to get themselves registered in time. see

S.Africa's 2-million expats win fight for equal voting rights

 

  Adriana Stuijt   votes | comments | Subscribe to author

WillemRichter_SAExpatTeacherUKsuesForVotingRightsAbroad20009 Willem Richter

March 12 2009 - South African teacher Willem Richter, working abroad temporarily, has won the first two legs of his law suit against the ANC- government, in which the Pretoria High- and Constitutional Courts now have ruled that 2-million SA expats must be granted equal voting rights even if they are abroad.

Final ruling: can they vote at embassies?

There’s still the Constitutional Court application due on March 12 2009 on whether expats must now also be given access to polling stations at foreign embassies. The last time this happened was in 1994. see previous stories here, here and also here

Only 14 days to register for voting:

Constitutional Court Justice Kate O'Regan has also ordered that all the expat-voters must be given the administrative facilities by the Electoral Commission which enables them to register their intention to vote by March 27 -- i.e. the expats now only have a meagre fourteen days left in which to register.

If the court turns down this application, the entire exercise has been useless -- because foreign legations will remain closed for expat voters as they have been since the first democratic elections were held in South Africa in 1994.

The right to vote has symbolic, democratic value
Justice O'Regan said in her first ruling that the right to vote 'has a symbolic and democratic value' and that the Electoral Commission has to adjust its rules accordingly. She thus agrees with an earlier order by the Pretoria High Court -- issued on behalf of applicant Willem Richter, a Pretoria school teacher in the UK, and the Freedom Front Plus party -- that all South African citizens have equal voting rights, even if they happen to be working abroad.

  • The Constitutional Court application was also joined by the Inkatha Freedom Party, the Democratic Alliance, the A-Party, the Afriforum civil rights group and twelve other South African citizens who live overseas at the moment.
  • All these parties have already argued successfully that it was their constitutional right to vote.

They submitted that it was moreover, unconstitutional not to allow them to vote abroad under the present rules of the Electoral Act and O’Regan agreed with the earlier Pretoria High Court judgment ruling laid down in this regard on behalf of Richter in February -- which had ordered that the minister of home affairs and the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) must extend the right to "special votes"(absentee ballots) to all categories of registered voters who are away from South Africa at the moment.

Two of the country's highest courts now have ordered the Electorial Commission to amend its regulations accordingly.

The next battle: get foreign polling stations
Still being considered by the court: a seperate application ordering the South African government to open voter-registration and polling stations at its foreign legations for all its expats. see

ANC rushed through election date:
The caretaker-ANC cabinet has meanwhile, already rushed through the announcement of the election date for April 22 without waiting for this Constitutional Court decision.

This entire court battle for equal voting rights for all South Africa is particularly ironic because so many members of this same ANC-cabinet have themselves also spent many years in exile during their struggle against apartheid, and were also consistently denied the right to vote by the Afrikaner-ruled National Party.

Picture: Nobel Peace Laureate and ex-president Frederick de Klerk of South Africa has come out in strong support of the egal battle by 2-million expats for their voting rights at foreign missions, being waged by teacher Willem Richter.

More than one-third of the 3-million-strong white Afrikaner minority in South Africa have already left the country of their birth, mostly young couples, who are forced to leave their elders behind while seeking new lives for themselves.

I have for instance, discovered pockets of young Afrikaner exile families in 48 different countries thus far - as far afield as Iceland, Norway and Dubai, and down under in Australia, New Zealand and even in China and Paraguay.

The ANC-government greatly fears the political impact of such a large body of expat-voters on the country's next election on April 22. That's why they have so consistently opposed the applications throughout all the court procedures, which were started in November by the Freedom Front Plus party.

The South African government's Home Affairs Department and the Independent Electoral Commission both opposed the applications -- at high cost to the taxpayers -- claiming it 'would be a logistical nightmare to ensure that all citizens could cast their ballots overseas; that they 'simply don't have the facilities or the manpower at foreign legations'.

They were allowed to vote before - why not now?
However it's been done before without any kind of 'logistical problems": the last time all South Africans working and living abroad were able to vote was in the first democratic election in 1994 - and many hundreds of thousands then voted without any kind of 'logistical problems', mainly in the United Kingdom, opposition party leaders point out.

  • The British Broadcasting Corporation says in a seperate report earlier this month that there's at least 600,000 South Africans living and working in the UK alone - and more than 2-million in some 46 other countries, mainly forced abroad.

There are two main reasons for this brain-drain from South Africa: they seek work because of the ANC-regime's own black-economic-empowerment job reservation laws, which bar the vst majority of even the most skilled 'whites' such as doctors, nurses and educators from working in the country of their birth since 1994.

The second reason for the brain-drain is the country's unprecedented violent crime rate, and the ANC-government's growing support of 'rogue nations' such as Zimbabwe, Iran, Cuba and the Palestine.see

At the moment, the clock is ticking for the country's expats who want to vote on April 22, and the court's next judgment now is eagerly awaited. see