Over 13,000 criminals to make their mark

Criminals in South Africa will be able to cast their votes behind bars on Wednesday in the general elections.

Beeld has reported that 13,405 criminals have registered to vote.

There are approximately 160,000 offenders that were eligible to register to vote in South Africa’s 240 prisons.

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Prisoners have been eligible to vote since 1999, with the Electoral Commission working closely with the department of correctional services to facilitate this.

Among those that reportedly opted not to vote tomorrow is convicted axe murderer Henri van Breda.

Van Breda was convicted in May last year of the brutal 2015 axe murders of his parents and elder brother, the attempted murder of his younger sister, as well as defeating the ends of justice. He received three life sentences, 15 years for attempted murder and a year for defeating the ends of justice – all sentences were ordered to run concurrently.

According to the article, Van Breda did not have his ID with him when registration for inmates took place from January 22 to 23.

This is often a challenge for offenders, who usually do not have access to their ID documents. They are often kept at home or with family members.

There was an appeal made before the registration date for family members in possession of offenders’ IDs to make arrangements to deliver them to the relevant correctional facility.

Correctional services said the registered inmates’ ID documents would be kept safe until they voted, and would be returned to family members on their next visit.

According to the IEC’s website, a total of 26,736,803 South Africans registered to vote in the general elections as the race to the polls heats up.

(Compiled by Nica Schreuder)

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