Registering outside jurisdiction a crime: IEC
Registering outside your area of residence or providing a false address with the aim of influencing voting outcomes is a crime, the IEC has warned.
|||Pretoria – Eligible South African voters should be aware that registering outside their area of residence or providing a false address with the aim of influencing voting outcomes is a crime, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) warned on Thursday.
IEC chief electoral officer Mosotho Moepya said those affected by changes in the municipal boundaries would not be considered as having broken the law.
“This is separate from an instance when a person has been affected by the redrafting of a boundary. We emphasise that persons are encouraged to register in the place where they reside,” said Moepya.
“When a person intends registering outside of their voting district, and had done so incorrectly in the past, then we will rectify that … but to do so knowingly is a criminal offense.”
Voter registration, which includes updating of details for those who changed residence, is scheduled to take place on Saturday and Sunday.
Moepya said applicants will need to provide an address of where they live and are located in the district they are registering.
“Where applicants do not have a formal address, they will need to provide sufficient details of where they live to allow election officials to confirm they are registering in the correct voting district. However, proof of address is not a prerequisite for registration,” explained Moepya.
Applicants are required to bring their identity books or smart card IDs and would be required to fill an REC1 voter registration application form at the station.
Those without formal addresses would fill in and sign an affirmation form, called an REC AS, to accompanying the REC1, in which they attest to the fact that they live in that voting district, said IEC spokeswoman Kate Bapela.
“Through the REC AS form, the applicant affirms to the IEC that they live in the address provided. This is trusting the applicant that they live in that address … remember that an address is not a legislative requirement to register, hence we appeal to South Africans to give full details about their address,” said Bapela.
“However, if we find that the address provided does not exist or that the applicant does not live there, then that would amount to a criminal offense by the applicant.”
Each voting station will have a copy of the voters’ roll showing the voters currently registered to vote in that area.
The stations will also have maps showing the boundaries of the voting district so that residents can point out where they live.
The IEC said it was enhancing the voters’ roll following the Tlokwe by-election debacle, when the Constitutional Court set aside the 2013 by-elections results in seven wards in Tlokwe, North West after a lengthy legal process.
On the eve of the by-election last month, the independent candidates took the IEC to the Electoral Court. They complained that at least 1 000 names appearing on the voters roll still did not have accompanying addresses as ordered by the Constitutional Court.
The IEC has since postponed the Tlokwe by-elections as ordered by the Electoral Court, and has also indicated it would approach the Constitutional Court to appeal the matter.
African News Agency
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