According to the students, the IEC turned them away without giving them a reason. Picture: Chris Collingridge
As various political parties question the legitimacy of the May 29 elections, about 100 South African students based in Turkey were denied the right to cast their votes in the past election.
According to one of the students, Nnono Roberts, the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) representative turned them away without giving them a reason as to why they were not allowed to cast their votes.
Roberts said they found it difficult to believe as they had voted at the embassy in previous elections.
“When we were told we can’t vote there we were shocked and didn’t want to make a fuss, so we all turned and left.
“What’s strange is that in 2019 we voted in the very same embassy but we were never given this trouble. I am very sad and disappointed that we were not allowed to cast our votes,” the student said.
Another student, Wilfred Manoto, from the Free State, also told Independent Media that he was denied his right to vote, adding that he was saddened by the whole ordeal.
Manoto said what was more frustrating was that the IEC didn’t bother to try and assist or provide them with a clear explanation as to why they couldn’t vote.
“We were denied the opportunity to vote for our political parties and now there’s no outright winner; maybe, had we been allowed to cast our votes we would have made a difference.
“The IEC failed us, and they didn’t care to explain why. All we got from them was their bad attitude and because we don’t have anywhere else to complain, we just left with our tails in between our legs,” he said.
When we contacted the IEC spokesperson for comment, Kate Bapela said these issues were dealt with during the elections.
“Such issues were dealt with during the voting phase. We can't at this stage deal with voting allegations,” added Bapela.
However, David Mandaha, from IEC’s communications, said they were probably allowed to vote at the embassy before as they might have used the option of voting outside the country, also known as VEC10.
“It is possible that when they voted there previously they used the VEC10 route. This is, however, only valid for that specific election,” Mandaha explained.
The South African students based in Turkey, however, said they had not applied for a VEC10 before and that this was the first time they had heard of such a thing.
Saturday Star
sipho.jack@inl.co.za
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