Our team’s efforts are aimed at making overseas voting accessible and fair, ensuring that all South Africans can exercise their right to vote regardless of where they live.

The DA Abroad’s Australian team has this year submitted a Green Paper “Locating Voting Stations Where South Africans Truly reside” to the Electoral Reform Consultation Panel (ERCP) in South Africa.

The submission focused on the following electoral reform priorities for South Africans living overseas:

1. Primary Reform – Location of Voting Stations: We advocated for changing the location of overseas voting stations to align with areas where large South African populations actually reside, rather than just where South African foreign missions are located. The current system has led to the exclusion of major locations, disenfranchising more than 150,000 South Africans abroad.

2. Timely Reform by 2026: We emphasized the importance of making these changes before the 2026 local elections. Delaying reforms until the 2029 election cycle could lead to repeated setbacks, with the government claiming that it's too late for implementation.

3. Voter Roll Address Capture: We highlighted the need for the overseas voters’ roll to capture accurate voter addresses to assist with appropriate allocation of voting stations, reflecting where South Africans abroad are based.

4. Equal Vote Value: Our team raised concerns about the current policy that counts overseas votes as half the value of domestic votes, since overseas voters do not receive a regional ballot. We advocated for an amendment to address this discrepancy.

The full Green Paper can be found here.