The road to the 2024 National and Provincial Elections (NPE) is rapidly approaching its final and most critical stages, with the next milestone being out-of-country voting.

It is two weeks to Election Day on May 29 and Friday marks the first day of voting in the NPE, with South African citizens living in nine countries abroad casting their ballots. Citizens in the remaining 102 countries will vote on Saturday.

However, given the 24 194 voters expected in London, this station will operate on Saturday and Sunday, says Sy Mamabolo, the chief electoral officer of the Electoral Commission of South Africa, known as the IEC.

The estimated 76 580 South Africans who are on the voters’ roll and either live abroad or will be abroad on Election Day can cast their votes at 111 foreign missions around the world from 07:00 to 19:00.

Vote where you are registered

The IEC has re-emphasised that voters must vote where they are registered, unless they have been given permission to vote elsewhere. If voters intend to be in a different voting district on Election Day, they must notify the IEC of their intended absence from their voting district and the voting station where they want to cast their vote.

A notification portal is available on the IEC’s website for this purpose. These notifications close on Friday.

You can register online.

Special votes

Special votes in South Africa will take place on May 27 and 28 from 09:00 to 17:00.

Special vote registrations closed on May 3, with 1 668 076 applications. Of these, 624 593 voters will be visited at their homes or places of confinement, and 1 043 483 will vote at their voting station.

The provinces with the most approved special votes for both home visits and voting station visits are:

• Gauteng: 335 4980
• KZN: 320 010
• Eastern Cape: 286 059
• Limpopo: 159 800
• Western Cape: 137 558
• North West: 132 627
• Mpumalanga: 126 112
• Free State: 86 908
• Northern Cape: 83 504.

Voting stations

Lease agreements for 23 303 permanent voting stations have been signed and concluded.

“Of these, 62% are schools, 9.7% are places of worship, and 28% include all other categories, such as community halls and municipal facilities,” says Mamabolo.

Training of 202 500 voting officials is in the final stages.

“The addition of a new category of staff to assist the presiding officer with the counting effort is another significant step towards improving the quality of counting,” says Mamabolo.

Three of these staff members are being appointed for each voting station, and for each sub-station where a voting centre is operated.

Results operation centre

The IEC will launch the National Results Centre (ROC) on May 22.

The ROC will be based at the Gallagher Convention Centre in Midrand, Johannesburg, and will house IEC members and representatives of key service providers, such as Eskom, Parliament, contestants’ representatives, domestic and international observer missions, and media.

A record 160 organisations with 5,000 observers domestically and from around the world will be observing the elections. Of these, 15 are international and include the African Union, the Carter Centre Democracy Programme, and the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance.

People with disability

Measures to make the voting process more accessible to all South Africans, regardless of physical abilities, have been implemented and voting officials will assist voters who require assistance.

Working with the South African National Council for the Blind, the IEC has developed a voting aid, the Universal Ballot Template (UBT), to increase voting confidentiality.

The UBT can be used by:

• Blind and partially-sighted people
• Low-vision users
• People with an unsteady hand
• The elderly
• People with low literacy

Check where you are registered to vote

All voters are urged to check their voting stations ahead of Election Day. This can be done by:

• SMSing your ID number to 32810
• Using the voting station finder application on the IEC’s website
• Contacting the call centre on 0800 11 8000
• Download the IEC app

Watch Mamabolo’s full media briefing here: