Surge in foreign-based voter applications ‘shows their concern’

The increase in the number of South African voters in foreign countries who have registered and expressed willingness to vote could be attributed to their concern about the country’s future due to its political and economic state of affairs.

This was the view of political analyst Dr Daniel Silke, who said those who previously voted from foreign countries mainly voted for the Democratic Alliance (DA), but the increase in the numbers could be linked to what is happening in SA in the economy and politics.

This after a record number of applications were received by the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) from overseas-based citizens who want to vote.

A total of 30,532 voters have applied at SA’s 121 foreign missions. The IEC said of those, 29,334 were approved. This was a marked increase from the 2014 general election when the commission received 27,899 applications with 26,716 approved. At the time, 18,446 actually voted.

But this time the numbers are up with the highest being in Europe at 14,838, followed by Asia at 7,174 and Africa at 2,868. The remainder were based in North America (2,196), Oceania (2,133) and South America at 125.

Of the approved applications, the SA London mission has the highest at 9,084 followed by Dubai in the United Arab Emirates which had 1,542.

Silke insisted it was unlikely the surge in the number of foreign-based voters was due to Ramaphoria, the optimism that emerged when Cyril Ramaphosa became president of the country after years of hopelessness under his predecessor, Jacob Zuma.

“There is clear concern in the South African community abroad about the economy and the political situation. I don’t ascribe this to Ramaphosa, but to concern about the situation. The voters may be interested in voting for him or in staging protest votes by voting for other parties,” Silke said.

Silke said previously most foreign voters were middle class people who voted for the DA, but it was difficult to say if that would be the case now with the country’s politics being so fluid presently.

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