ConCourt to hear vote case today

The Constitutional Court will on Wednesday hear arguments on the right to vote for South Africans living abroad.

UPDATE: Overseas vote case intensifies - Constitutional Court judges worked late into Wednesday night in a day of intense argument by eight lawyers fighting over whether all South Africans living abroad should be allowed to vote in the April elections.

The hearing is a result of three separate applications relating to the same issue that will be heard on the same day.

It challenges the constitutional validity of certain sections of the Electoral Act 73 of 1998 and the related regulations.

The main matter was brought by Willem Richter, a South African citizen and registered voter, who is working as a teacher in the United Kingdom until the end of 2009.

He applied to the Pretoria High Court to have certain parts of section 33 of the Act declared unconstitutional and invalid on the basis that they unfairly deny certain categories of South African citizens who are absent from South Africa the right to vote.

On February 9, the Pretoria High Court ordered the minister of home affairs and the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) to extend the right to special votes to registered voters out of the country.

The IEC also had to amend the Election Regulations of 2004.

The second and third applications are similar cases brought by the AParty and another group of people also living abroad.