South Africa’s parliament will amend a controversial law to allow nationals living abroad to vote in general elections next year, local media reported Wednesday.
”We will be taking up this matter as their (opposition parties’) concerns are reasonable, and I’m sure steps will be taken to ensure that the necessary amendments will be done to afford people the opportunity to vote,” President Thabo Mbeki said on Tuesday.
He was responding to queries from both the minority, mainly white Freedom Front party and the New National Party during a debate before the upper house of parliament, National Council of Provinces.
South Africa’s parliament adopted the Electoral Laws Amendment Bill in September after a last-minute change that effectively barred any South African abroad from voting in elections, expected to be held during the first half of 2004.
No official figures are available on how many South Africans live abroad, but estimates range between hundreds of thousands and more than a million.
Government statisticians say more than 58 000 South Africans declared that they had emigrated between 1996 and 2001.
They were mainly white South Africans with university degrees, mostly leaving for better career options or because they did not support the black democratic government elected in 1994, or to flee the high crime rate.
Additionally, it has become a trend for university graduates to work temporarily overseas after completing their studies. – AFP
