Two things are clear from this result:

1) South Africans abroad to do not want the ANC in Government

2) The majority of South Africans abroad see the DA as the only  alternative to replace the ANC government.

We want to thank all of you who voted for us abroad on 15 April. By making your mark next to the DA on your ballot paper you have helped contribute to the change so vitally needed in South Africa.

Here is a breakdown of the overseas vote totals by party (only the bigger political parties are shown here):

Total votes: 9857

• DA: 7581 (votes)
• COPE: 918
• ANC: 673
• FF+: 270
• ACDP: 184
• ID: 136
• CDA: 23
• UDM: 20

Check it out and tell us what you think.

Click here and simply fill in your ID number.

You will then know if you are able to vote at your foreign mission on 15 April!

This means that if you did not submit your VEC10 form before this deadline you will not be able to vote on 15 April – the special voting day abroad.

We want to thank all those South Africans living abroad who took the time to apply for a special vote.

We will continue to keep you posted on all the latest developments that happen befote your voting day and that affect you as a South African living abroad!

You can find the new Vec10 form here

You do not have to resubmit your application if you have already applied for a special vote with the old form.

Please get your forms in before midnight on 27 March 2009.

Now you can email your VEC10 forms to vec10@elections.org.za.

Make sure you submit your form before 27 March 2009.

The Constitutional Court also granted a new 15 day period for South Africans abroad to apply for a special vote overseas.

This 15 day period has begun and all South Africans who are registered to vote and who want to apply for a special vote must get their applications submitted to the IEC before 27 March 2009.

The DA encourages every South African who is living abroad and who is registered to vote to apply for a special vote so that you can have your say in the upcoming elections.

The special voting day abroad will take place on 15 April.

Click on read more to find out how to apply for a Special Vote

1) You have to be a registered voter

To apply for a special vote in the upcoming 2009 National and Provincial Elections, you have to be a registered voter.
If you have registered before (either in 1999, 2006 or on the registration weekends in November 2008 or February 2009) you are a registered voter.

2) If you are abroad

You will be able to vote at the South African foreign mission closest to you. You can find out which foreign mission is closest to you by clicking on the link on the homepage of the C2C blog.

Voting at foreign mission will take place on 15 April.

To apply you must:

a) Notify the Chief Electoral Officer of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) that you want to cast a special vote at a foreign mission by completing a VEC10 form which you must send to the IEC by email, post or by fax

Email address:

vec10@elections.org.za

 Postal Address:
P O Box 7943, Pretoria, 0001, South Africa

Fax number
 +27 12 428 5566 or +27 12 428 5279 

This must be done within 15 days before 27 March 2009.

You may not change the place where you indicated you want to vote after these 15 days have expired so make sure your foreign mission is correct.

The Chief Electoral Officer will check whether you are a registered voter and will then inform the foreign mission where you intend to vote that you have successfully applied for a special vote.

If your application is successful you must:

b) On the 15 April you must go to your foreign mission during office hours with you green bar-coded identity document and your passport;
c) At the mission you will fill in a VEC1 form and produce your passport to the voting officer;
d) The voting officer will check that your application to the IEC for a special vote was successful;
e) If the voting officer is happy with your application you must then produce your green bar-coded identity document;
f) You will then be able to cast your vote.

The DA wants you to apply for a Special Vote

This election is the most exciting election yet. The ANC is the weakest it has been since 1994 and the DA is growing stronger each day as a result.

The ANC has split and this a positive development for democracy, because it means that the ANC is no longer guaranteed majorities in every province in South Africa.

The DA believes that this election will be the tipping point in South Africa where the country will be on its way to forming a brand new government that no longer serves an elite few but rather one that serves all the people in an Open, Opportunity, Society for All.
The DA is on track to win the Western Cape in 2009 and there is a good chance that we will form coalition governments in other provinces, too.

And that is just the beginning: the DA will govern in towns and cities across the country after the 2011 local government elections; and we will be part of the national government in 2014.

However, we need you to make our dream for South Africa – our dream of one nation, one future – into a reality.

Only you have the power to make the change that is so vitally needed in this country. The change that will ensure a government is put into power that delivers on its promises.
It is therefore imperative that you apply for a special vote within the 15-day period if you will be out of the country on Election Day.

The DA is committed to building a better future. A future in which every person is free. Where everyone has access to life-changing opportunities. Where growth and prosperity are shared by all. Where every child is protected and safe and where each and every language and culture is respected and protected.
We call on you to commit yourselves to the same future. To apply for a special vote and to vote for the DA on your election day!

This means that South Africans in New Zealand no longer have to travel to Canberra in Australia to vote.

The contact details for this foreign mission is:

To all South Africans in New Zealand please make sure you get your forms in before midnight on 27 February!

NEW VEC10 FORM

The new VEC10 form is pretty self explanatory except for:

1) Election Date: fill in 22 April

2) Voting District number: click here and all you need to do then is fill in your ID number and it will then tell you where you are registered in South Africa and will give you your voting district number that you need to fill in.

If you still have the old VEC10 form you can download the new one here

However, we have left the tips for the old form on the site and you can read them below:

OLD VEC10 FORM

The old VEC10 form can be quite confusing due to the fact that it was designed for voters who live in South Africa, and are only leaving the country for a short while.

Here a few tips on what information you should provide when filling in the various sections of the form:

1) Election Date : 22 April

2) Voting District: click here and all you need to do then is fill in your ID number and it will then tell you where you are registered in South Africa and will give you your voting district number that you need to fill in.

3) Abroad at the South African/Embassy/High Commission/Consulate in: you obviously fill in the mission you will be voting at.

4) I will leave the Republic/left the Republic on: this is the date you left the republic to go live abroad.

5) The purpose of my temporary absence is: you must fill in the reason for why your are currently living overseas; for example, on a working holiday visa etc.

6)  I am ordinarily resident in the Republic at the following address: this is the address where you are currently registered at in South Africa. In other words the place you lived at when you last voted or registered in a previous election.

7) My temporary address abroad on election day will be: you must fill in the address that you are currently living at abroad.

The DA hopes that this assists you when you fill in your forms.

However, if you still have queries you can email global@da.org.za and we will do our best to assist you.

Make sure you get your forms in by midnight on 27 February 2009!

Former K-fm DJ and now resident law student at Yale University in the United States, Nic Marais recently wrote the following letter about his plight:

The Right to Vote – Even when Inconvenient

When I was thirteen – stereotypically worried about school, girls, and my own coming of-age – something very profound happened. I watched the birth of my nation.

I watched history happen. I watched true leadership emerge to steer a relatively peaceful transition. I watched the death of decades of tyrannical, unspeakable minority rule, and the birth of an exemplary constitution and a democracy I could call my own. And I watched as my compatriots voted – almost 16 million of them, in lines that stretched for miles, staunch NP supporters alongside African grandmothers who had never voted before. My understanding of democracy was born in April 1994: each South African would get one vote, one equal voice, and we would all participate.

Today, two months before our fourth national election, I find myself in America – staring in from the outside, a spectator to the process, effectively disenfranchised.

Make no mistake, the situation is better than it was a week ago. On Monday, the High Court ruled that citizens living abroad are entitled to vote – five years after an amendment restricted overseas voting privileges to those beyond the Republic’s borders for government duty, holiday, business trips, studies, or international sporting events. The case was a slam-dunk affair – our Bill of Rights guarantees every adult citizen the right to vote in any election – and the previous disenfranchisement of South African ex pats was clearly, flagrantly, embarrassingly unconstitutional.

While the ruling is as significant as it was obvious, it doesn’t really solve the problem. Instead of giving the Constitutional Court and the IEC time to work things out, President Kgalema Motlanthe proclaimed the election date within three days of the High Court’s ruling. That proclamation activates a frustratingly brief window period: we have just 15 days to apply for a special vote. That time is now ticking by, and the IEC hasn’t even updated its website. Newly-eligible voters can only download old forms, and the VEC-1 application still has no category for those living and working beyond our borders.

There are other problems, too. I’ve never travelled with my green ID book, and I won’t have it come April 22. I have a dozen other forms of identification – including my passport and my fingerprints – but I won’t be able to vote. Many South Africans will have to travel thousands of miles to find a polling station. And those without access to the IEC’s website, or those who haven’t heard of this week’s ruling?

These problems won’t be solved by April – and South Africans living abroad are at fault for taking so long to file suit. But they must be solved, as quickly and as simply as possible. Americans living abroad log on, submit their details and have an absentee ballot mailed to them, anywhere in the world; they fill it in, mail it back, and the deal’s sealed. We could do the same, or have our ballots certified at police stations, or sign them with our fingerprints. There must be solutions, and we must find them.

We’ve already won half the battle: a constitutionally-guaranteed right, perhaps the most important of them all, has been restored. Now we need to make it work.

Nic raises a number of important points, particularly about the problems associated with applying for a special vote. No doubt a great many of you out there can relate to his predicament.

But not despair, the very purpose of the site is the DA’s Contribute to Change Global initiative is to help you, as a South African living abroad, to overcome these problems:

• First, if you have any general queries send them through to us at global@da.org.za. We are waiting for your mail and will get back to you ASAP.
• Second, we have downloaded the IEC’s forms onto this site. You can access a VEC1 form here and a VEC10 form here.
• Third, if you e-mail us with your home residential address (that is, the area in which you registered to vote in South Africa) we can help you find your Voting District number.
• Fourth, if you are struggling to find your nearest mission or embassy, you can use this link or e-mail us and we will find it for you.
• Fifth, if you have any specific queries about how to apply for a Special Vote, you can read our post on the subject here or e-mail us.
• Sixth, the DA will this week be approaching the Constitutional Court, to consider its court application on 4 and 6 March, to allow those people registered to vote, to vote overseas, along with applications from various other political parties.

All special vote applications must reach the IEC by midnight on 27 February, which means as of today there are 10 days to get your application for a Special Vote into the IEC. Every vote counts, so please make every effort.