Dear Editor,
As with the last election, the election to be held next year is again marred by a blatant breach of the constitution of South Africa.
The Bill of Rights (Chapter 2 of the Constitution) states that every citizen of South Africa has the right to vote in an election. However, the IEC feels that it is in its right to disallow South African citizens residing outside of South Africa from voting in the up-coming elections.
Now, let us compare this to the recent election in America. Not only were American citizens residing outside of the USA allowed to vote (including in South Africa), but the astronauts (who are not even on earth) were allowed to vote from the space station.
I ask myself, what exactly then is a citizen according to the IEC? Is citizenship limited to our borders? According to the aforesaid, it appears to be so.
Our country has the most advanced human rights charter in the world, unfortunately this is only on paper as the IEC feels free to contradict the very rights that the people fought for. This should not be tolerated. We have fought hard for democracy, so let us hold fast to what we deserve.
One question though comes to mind; will the foreign ambassadors be allowed to vote?
Robert Ndungane,
Pretoria
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