IEC gets set for prison votes
2004-03-03 16:51
Johannesburg - South African voters in prisons are entitled to cast their ballots in the upcoming general election in terms of a Constitutional Court ruling on Wednesday.
The Independent Electoral Commission undertook to abide by the judgment, saying registration preparations were underway.
"The commission has received the judgment and is studying it with the aim of finalising preparations for the registration of prisoners as ordered by the court," said the IEC.
The court ruled earlier in the day that prisoners sentenced without the option of a fine be allowed to vote in the April 14 elections.
Mixed reaction to court's ruling
Last month, the court heard an application by Nicro and the two prisoners who were serving sentences without the option of a fine.
They argued that an amendment to the Electoral Act promulgated in December 2003 violated two constitutional rights of prisoners: the right to vote and the right to equality.
Under the Electoral Laws Amendment Act, only prisoners awaiting trial and prisoners given the option of paying a fine were allowed to vote in the election.
The ruling received mixed reactions.
Nicro and SA Prisoner's Organisation for Human Rights (Sapohr) welcomed it, saying the court had restored the rights of inmates.
"The Constitutional Court has restored prisoners' rights and shown they are full citizens," said Nicro's Lukas Muntingh.
Sapohr said the decision once again reiterated that the constitution was the supreme law of the country.
Sapohr urged prisoners to cast their ballots and invited all political parties to conduct campaigns in prisons.
The New National Party, Freedom Front Plus and the Democratic Alliance were not pleased with the ruling.
The Democratic Alliance said only awaiting-trial prisoners, and prisoners whose sentence provided for the option of a fine, should be allowed to vote.
'They took away the rights of others'
DA leader Tony Leon told reporters at a prison near Bloemfontein that "serious criminals forfeit rights such as the rights to freedom".
"There has to be penalty. They took away the rights of others."
The New National Party agreed.
Party leader Marthinus van Schalkwyk said the IEC now had to go to the cell of a serial rapist, such as Fanwell Khumalo, to register him as voter and then go back to his cell on April 14 for him to cast his vote, although "he will never see the outside of a jail again".
"Parliament and South Africans should urgently debate this issue and it may be necessary that legislation be put in place to clarify the extent of the rights of criminals, who have been convicted of violent crimes," said Van Schalkwyk.
FF+ chief whip Corné Mulder said it was ironic that inmates now had the right to vote while some South Africans finding themselves overseas were not allowed to do so.
- SAPA