Read our concluding remarks on the 2024 voting weekend here.
1. Online overseas voter registration for the 2024 election was possible until 22 April 2024.
This meant that for the first time ever, South Africans who live overseas have been able to register online to be on the voters’ roll. The period to register ran until the election was officially proclaimed in the Government Gazette on 23 February. This confirmed the date of 29 May as the election date in South Africa and 17/18 May as the overseas election date. In addition, South Africans abroad had a two-month window in which they could sumbit a VEC 10 form in order to vote overseas, if they were still registered in South Africa. The deadline to submit the form was 22 April.
2. How the election works overseas
With 29 May being the election day in South Africa, citizens overseas will cast their vote on either 17 or 18 May, depending on the workweek in the host country. In practice, this implies that countries with a Sunday-Thursday workweek will vote on 17 May, and countries with a Monday-Friday workweek (the vast majority of countries) will vote on 18 May. The foreign missions will be open from 7:00 to 19:00 local time.
Per South African electoral laws, you are required to vote at the polling station where you are registered, no exceptions can be made. However, a so-called VEC 10 form will enable you to temporarily change your registration from one station to another if you cannot vote in the place you intended, like if you are away for a work trip or a holiday. You can request this VEC 10 form if:
you are registered in South Africa but intend to vote at an overseas mission;
you are registered overseas but intend to vote at a different overseas mission.
The deadline to submit a VEC 10 form is 22 April. People registered overseas who will vote at the mission they have registered at need not submit this form.
If you are registered overseas, but intend to vote at a polling station in South Africa on 29 May, you can change your registration status to SA with a Section 24A notice. The deadline to submit this request is 17 May. Note that on election day, you will only be able to vote for the National Assembly and not for the National Council of Provinces, as you are not orginally registered in a province.
So please first check here where you are currently registered. If you are registered where you intend to vote, you can simply show up on election day with your documents. If you want to vote elsewhere overseas on election day, you can request a VEC 10 form here. If you want to vote in South Africa, please submit a Section 24A notice here.
While in the past you needed to show a valid South African passport on election day, this requirement has now been removed. This means that a valid ID (a green, bar-coded ID book; temporary ID; or smart ID card) is enough to vote on election day!
If you are registered to vote but do not have your ID with you overseas, please either have it couriered to you by mail, or let someone deliver it to you personally, no copies or scans are accepted.
If you are registered to vote but do not possess an ID, you can still get one between now and May if you visit South Africa during this time. Turnaround times are a lot faster in SA than at overseas missons, so you can apply for a new (temporary) ID and use it to vote overseas.
3. Why should I vote if I live overseas?
Experts and opinion polls are all in agreement: this year, the ANC will likely drop below 50% and lose power.
Every single vote counts. Each and every person can make a difference for the future of our country.
In this election your vote has the power to finally defeat the ANC and give South Africa the fresh start it so desperately needs. Be part of this historic mission to rescue South Africa by voting.
4. What about the extra voting stations?
In 2019 the IEC made 125 voting stations available around the world, which were placed in all South African embassies, high commissions and consulate-generals. The law currently states that South Africans can only vote at official South African foreign missions as designated by the Department for International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO).
Unfortunately, this means that there are many locations with significant amounts of South African citizens that get excluded. For example, in the UK you would currently only be able to vote in London, and in Australia only in Canberra.
In light of this, the DA and DA Abroad started court action against DIRCO and the IEC in February to make more voting stations available in other cities around the world. On 9 April we won this court case, please read our press release here. The DA will monitor the IEC to ensure the practical implementation of this decision, as well as to confirm the number and locations of all additional voting stations. This means that currently, no extra voting stations are yet available to select, but this will likely change soon.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Absolutely! All South African citizens abroad over the age of 18 can vote in the 2024 national election. You have to be registered to vote either in SA or abroad, so please check if you are registered and where via the link here.
If you are registered at a voting station in South Africa but want to vote abroad, you will need to submit a VEC 10 form. The deadline to submit this form is 23:59 SAST on 22 April. To fill in a VEC 10 form, please access the link here.Note: South Africans abroad can only vote in South African national elections. They cannot vote in municipal and provincial elections.
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To be eligible to vote overseas, you must:
Be a South African citizen;
Be at least 18 years old;
Have a valid South African ID – either a green barcoded ID book OR smart ID card OR temporary ID certificate;
Be registered to vote, either in SA or abroad (registration closed on 23 February 2024).
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You can check your current registration status at https://check.da.org.za/ and https://www.elections.org.za/pw/Voter/Voter-Information.
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Voting day abroad is different from voting day in South Africa. Voting day abroad will be either on Friday the 17th OR Saturday the 18th of May depending on the overseas mission.
Voting day in South Africa will be on the 29th of May. -
South Africans residing abroad can vote at the South African diplomatic mission they have registered at. The list of accredited overseas missions is linked on the following IEC web page here.
We understand that the lack of voting stations in areas with a high density of South African diaspora is a problem, and as such the DA has launched a court case against the IEC to get more voting stations around the world. Our case will be heard on 26 March, see our latest press release on the matter here. -
Unfortunately, South Africa does not allow for overseas online or mail-in voting. As such you will need to vote in person on election day.
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By law, any person who wants to vote has to do this at the voting station at which they are registered. A VEC 10 form is an online form that allows South Africans to vote at an overseas mission at which they are currently not registered to vote.
You will need to submit a VEC 10 form in the following two scenarios.
1) You are registered to vote in South Africa but:
• you are temporarily abroad on 17/18 May and won't be back in South Africa to vote on 29 May; or
• you are living abroad permanently and need to change your voting station to an overseas mission, as you didn’t register to vote abroad.2) You are registered to vote abroad, but you intend to vote at a different overseas voting station.
Let’s say you live in the UK and are registered in London, but you will be in Munich for work on election day. You have to fill in a VEC 10 form to temporarily change your voting station from London to Munich.
People who intend to vote at the mission at which they have registered need not submit a VEC 10.The deadline to submit the VEC 10 form is 22 April at 23:59 SAST. The link to the form can be found here. To check the status of your application, you can consult the link here.
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South Africans who are already registered to vote in South Africa need to fill in a VEC 10 form in order to vote at an overseas mission (see ‘What is a VEC 10 form and do I need one to vote in 2024?’).
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Yes you can. If you are registered abroad but want to vote in South Africa on 29 May, you will need to submit a Section 24A notice to temporarily change to a voting station in South Africa. The link to the Section 24A notice can be found here. To check the status of your application, you can consult the link here. The deadline to submit the notice is 17 May at 23:59 SAST.
Note: you will only receive a national ballot on election day, as you are not originally registered in a province.
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Yes, you can still vote abroad at a South African mission of your choice. Please submit a VEC 10 form and select your nearest South African mission, even if it is in a different country.
If your nearest mission is too far away, please submit the form anyway, as it helps the DA in its ongoing court case for more overseas votinhereg stations. We will announce if any more voting stations are open as a result of the court case and how to ensure you can vote there.
To see the current list of overseas voting stations, please consult the link here. -
No, you are not required to vote at the mission in the country in which you live. It is completely up to you where you would like to register to vote.
For instance, if you live in Malmö, Sweden, and it is more practical for you to go to Copenhagen as opposed to Stockholm, you can select Copenhagen as your voting station on the VEC 10 form.
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If you are going to South Africa between now and May, renew your ID at a Home Affairs office. Turnaround times are 7 to 21 working days back in SA, in contrast to overseas missions where this usually takes multiple months.
Contact your nearest mission to book an appointment to renew your ID. The sooner the better, as overseas missions take multiple months to process ID renewals.
If the mission’s consular team takes inexplicably long, is not responding to you or does not respect even their own deadlines, write an email explaining the matter to contact@da-abroad.org. We can advise on and potentially escalate difficult cases by bringing them to the attention of the deputy Shadow minister for Home Affairs. This is not a guarantee for speedy service, but it’s the best we can do.
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If you registered to vote before the national elections, but you are not listed as being a registered voter, then email info@elections.org.za with a scan of your identity document (ID book or ID card) AND passport and proof that you registered, so that the IEC can investigate the matter.
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The current situation with the citizenship court case is that Home Affairs did not contest the Supreme Court's ruling, which means that the Constitutional Court now only has to ratify the verdict before it goes into effect.
Unfortunately, there is no set timeline for this. We are not sure ourselves, but the ratification could well be several months from now. Once this has been done, Home Affairs will need to set up a process to reinstate the citizenship of everyone who has inadvertently lost it over the years.
As the DA Abroad we will make a case out of that, ensuring oversight and timeliness. Unfortunately, this means that for now, people cannot reapply for documents yet.
We will share news on the case as soon as it comes out, so sign up for our email list through our website to know the latest.
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Registering to vote is done by the IEC and is a process that is not linked to SARS in any way. SARS does not have any access to data you share with the IEC. Therefore, SARS can’t “tax you twice” due to you having registered to vote abroad, these are completely independent processes.
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