South Africa’s s Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) today announced that about 16 240 voters people in London have registered for next
Wednesday’s presidential elections.
Of these, 7 427 are registered to vote at the South African mission in London, making it the largest polling station in the elections, says the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC).
The largest voting station in South Africa is at Joubert Park, Johannesburg.
The IEC was not able to give the exact number of registered voters at
Joubert Park but suggested the figure was between 3 000 and 4 000.
The second largest overseas polling station is in Canberra, Australia, with 1 235 registered voters, then Dubai in the United Arab Emirates with 900 registered and Wellington, New Zealand, with 410.
Checking irregularities
To ensure legitimacy of overseas votes, the IEC has set up a two-envelope system. Once a voter has cast a vote in secret it is placed in an unmarked envelope and sealed. This unmarked envelope is then placed in another envelope with the voter’s name, ID number and voter district number. These envelopes are then placed in a ballot box.
When it is opened on election day, the details on the marked envelope
are checked against the voters roll, and if there is no irregularity, the unmarked envelope is placed in the ballot box.
Voting stations at South African missions abroad will be open from 7am to 7pm.
Wednesday elections would be the third in a democratic South Africa
with Nelson Mandela being the founding president but stepped down to
give power to Thabo Mbeki, who was “forced to step down” last year by his party, the ANC.
The populist candidate Jacob Zuma who was recently cleared of all
corrpution charges is tipped to comfortably win. Zuma, according to a survey issued on Monday, is viewed as South Africa’s sexiest politician.
“The snap survey, measuring personality appeal beyond rhetoric and electioneering, shows that image-makers and stylists may have their work cut out if elections were fought on sex appeal alone,” Roshika Doolabh of Sexpo is quoted saying.
The second placing was neck and neck, with Cope leader Mosiuoa Lekota
edging out former president Thabo Mbeki.
