Latest News on the International Votes

The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) announced tonight that so far 17,906 votes from South African overseas have been counted.

These votes have been captured by 106 foreign missions. The IEC is still awaiting the final votes from a remaining 10 missions. These need to be received by 9pm tomorrow night.

The IEC said on Twitter: “Will count outstanding overseas ballots received by 9pm tomorrow, and result will be finalised tomorrow night.”

Many South African expat voters who spent a lot of time and money last week on long journeys to the few and far between voting stations abroad to make their mark, have been concerned about whether their vote will count.

Hayley Short, a volunteer with the DA Abroad, reassured overseas voters that “the bulk have been received but not all have arrived at the IEC, perhaps caught up in customs somewhere. 9 pm is the cut off for all votes to be counted so final results can be announced on Saturday. We know the bulk of overseas votes are safe & being counted – we have a superb party agent monitoring the counting & checking (that they all arrived). We are confident they will all be accounted for!”

The international votes will be counted as one separate voting district, and the results should be announced before or on approximately 10 May, when the other final results are expected to be published.