South Africans living in Israel, Ukraine may not be able to vote – but IEC urges them to register

South Africans living abroad in at least three countries may be unable to vote in the upcoming national elections due to ongoing violent conflicts.

This after the department of international relations and co-operation (Dirco) informed the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) that it has closed its missions in Israel, Ukraine and Sudan.

IEC chief electoral officer Sy Mamabolo on Thursday announced they have been informed by Dirco that the missions in the three countries have been closed due to security concerns. 

Unless the situation changes in the coming months, this is likely to make it impossible for the IEC to make logistical arrangements required to allow South Africans living in those countries to manually vote and the electoral body currently lacks electronic voting capacity. 

Israel is engaged in a war in Gaza that has been described as genocide by the South African government, while Ukraine is warring with Russia over invasion of some of its territories. Sudan is also engaged in a war believed to be over access to the contested Red Sea.

“The department of international relations and co-operation (Dirco) has informed us that three missions, that being Israel, Sudan and Ukraine, have been temporarily closed due to security concerns,” said Mamabolo.

“We will take the best possible steps to ensure that everyone participates in this democratic process. We encourage citizens in these countries to register using the online portal.”

The IEC said despite the missions being closed, it still encouraged South African citizens living in those countries to register to vote using the online platforms during this coming voter registration weekend. Should the situation in those countries abate, the citizens would be registered and ready to vote if there’s a decision to reopen the missions. 

So far, there are 18,469 South Africans living abroad who have registered online to vote in 101 countries. Most of these are in the UK, Netherlands, UAE and the US at 5,938, 1,844, 1,068 and 821 respectively.

“The IEC has enabled an online registration facility for the first time to allow South Africans outside the country to easily register for the 2024 elections,” said Mamabolo.

“In the 2019 elections, about 21,000 South Africans voted abroad, with 7,023 of them being newly registered. The commission hopes that the introduction of an online registration system will attract the majority of citizens from abroad.”

IEC commissioner Janet Love said: “We don’t at this stage have a possibility for voting online. As we have indicated in previous interactions with yourselves, the IEC has been looking at ways of using technology increasingly, and this is clearly something we need to take on board, not just for people living abroad but for South Africans.

“But that is not an opportunity available to us now, and the law itself does not provide for that at the moment.”

Love said the IEC was not in a position to give further details on the three closed missions except to say they were advised by Dirco that it was due to security concerns.

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