How to Vote Abroad in 2024

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. Where can I vote?  

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 Democratic Alliance 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 the court ruled in its favour, whereby honorary consulates are now also deemed to be valid locations for voting. The DA has indicated it 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.