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Thousands of convicted prisoners will exercise their franchise when South Africa goes to poll later this year. South Africa’s Constitution allows convicted prisoners to vote in the elections unlike most countries, where prisoners do not have voting rights.
South Africa’s Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) this week went on an overdrive to register eligible inmates on the voter’s roll. For the first time, the number of eligible voters in the country surpassed 27 million. The IEC is hoping that at least 100,000 prisoners will vote this year, up from a total of 15,000 inmates who voted in the 2019 elections. There are over 157,000 inmates in South African correctional facilities.
South African inmates were first allowed to vote after a 1999 landmark court case that afforded them the right to take part in the democratic process. In many countries across the world, prisoners are not afforded the right to cast a vote. The South has one of the highest crime rates in the world. Unlike in other countries, its Constitution allows all citizens the right to vote, including convicted criminals and South Africans living abroad.
Last weekend, thousands of South Africans living abroad were allowed to register at the country’s foreign missions to cast their votes at a date still to be declared by President Cyril Ramaphosa.
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South Africa will this year hold one of its most highly contested polls since the end of apartheid and white minority rule, with the governing African National Congress facing one of its toughest elections yet. Some polls indicate that the party may dip below 50% electoral support for the first time since coming into power in 1994.
