NIC MARAIS ON THE UPCOMING ELECTION
And not being allowed to vote
28.02.2009I’ve just received a superb open letter by 2oceansvibe character (“The DJ”) and former KFM morning show DJ, Nic Marais.
Nic in his old position as
KFM morning show DJ
Nic is currently studying law at Yale after flipping a coin, having been accepted at both Yale and Harvard.
Shame, he’s quite dof.
So anyway, Nice just sent me this little piece regarding our upcoming elections.
Check it out:
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 traveled 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 Marais
Keep abreast of Nic’s thoughts and new adventures in The States. Check out his blog at www.nicmarais.co.za which is clearly undergoing some weird vibe as it currently just shows the letters “NM” on the screen.
Nic, are you ok, buddy?
