"There are over 1.6 million South Africans who have been approved to vote by special votes. Of those, 624,000 will be visited by our trained staff at their homes of places of confinement," said Masego Sheburi, the deputy chief executive officer of South Africa’s Independent Electoral Commission, the IEC.
NPE 2024 Readiness for Special Voting https://t.co/rkiJdPuV7T
— IEC South Africa (@IECSouthAfrica) May 26, 2024
Those who were approved for special voting did so because of their "physical conditions and their inability to physically present themselves at a voting station," he added.
Sheburi said special voting will be held on Monday and Tuesday.
After special voting closes "the ballot boxes will be transported for safe storage over the night of the 27th and the 28th. This is so because the special votes are not counted separately on those dates," the IEC official said.
Sheburi said the votes "will be transported for safe storage and reintroduced at voting stations on the 29th, verification will be undertaken before they are included in the count once all the stations have closed."
South Africans living overseas cast ballots May 18 and 19 at embassies around the world.
The rest of the country votes on Wednesday, May 29, in South Africa’s sixth general election, three decades after the end of apartheid governance in 1994.
Some analysts and voters say this year’s general election could prove a historic turning point for South Africa, marking the first time that the governing African National Congress, ANC, loses its parliamentary majority for the first time since taking office in 1994.
The IEC says over 50 parties, including the ANC, the main opposition Democratic Alliance and the Economic Freedom Fighters, are competing in the elections.
"I think what we are seeing in South Africa is the natural evolution of democracy because originally when the African National Congress came into power there were essentially two or three parties. But as the democracy has matured, more parties have seen the opportunity to cut out niches and establish specific perspectives," said Johan Ferreira, a South African who voted in the United States.
Johan Ferreira, a South African who voted in the United States, reacts during an interview with VOA in Washington on May 19, 2024.
Jason Van Niekerk, another voter who cast his ballot in the U.S., echoed those sentiments.
"This election we saw a lot more political parties. I think a lot more parties that appeal to young professionals like myself. So, the traditional big parties, I think they could likely be the biggest losers, and they stand to lose the most," Van Niekerk told VOA.
Talk of the ANC possibly losing its parliamentary majority has not shaken South Africa’s economy.
The South African rand traded at 18.4325 ZAR against the dollar Monday, not far from its previous close of 18.4250 ZAR.
Andre Cilliers, a currency strategist at TreasuryONE, a South African finance firm, said the South African rand "has managed to hold below the key 18.50 technical level for now, but with the election on Wednesday, we could still see some volatility and a possible break above."
The South African Reserve Bank will announce its latest monetary policy decision on Thursday, a day after the election.
Monthly producer inflation, trade and budget balance data are also due this week.
Some information for this article was sourced from Reuters.