{"id":755013,"date":"2024-02-26T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-26T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=755013"},"modified":"2024-02-26T11:29:33","modified_gmt":"2024-02-26T09:29:33","slug":"public-holiday-officially-declared-for-voting-day-heres-what-comes-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/trending\/755013\/public-holiday-officially-declared-for-voting-day-heres-what-comes-next\/","title":{"rendered":"Public holiday officially declared for voting day &#8211; here&#8217;s what comes next"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Important updates regarding the 2024 general elections have been published. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Department of Home Affairs has officially declared May 29, 2024, as a public holiday in South Africa, and the Electoral Commission has published the election timetable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The department processed the declaration made by President Cyril Ramaphosa, with the day of the public holiday coinciding with the date of the 2024 national election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ramaphosa announced the election date on 20 February 2024, but the date was only officially gazetted on Friday (23 February).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>An election date is not automatically considered a public holiday, thus the additional gazette to that effect must also be submitted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition to officially putting the election date on the calendar and making it a public holiday to ensure that all South Africans are free and available to vote, the gazetting of the date also marks the closure of voter registration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The voters roll officially closed at midnight on 23 February.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What comes next<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The 2024 elections coincide with South Africa\u2019s celebration of 30 years of freedom and democracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Independent Electoral Commission has gazetted <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gpwonline.co.za\/Documents\/Government\/50185%2024-2%20ElectoralCommission%20Separate.pdf\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"http:\/\/www.gpwonline.co.za\/Documents\/Government\/50185%2024-2%20ElectoralCommission%20Separate.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">an extensive schedule<\/a> outlining the series of events which will occur before, during, and after the elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The election timetable provides important dates, including the cut-off for political parties to submit candidate forms, potential voters to inform the Electoral Commission of voting abroad, and the dates of overseas and special voting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Starting Monday (26 February), the voter roll will be available for inspection until March 4th. Any individual who wishes to raise objections must do so before this deadline. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For those who opt for a special vote, applications can be made between April 15th and May 3rd, with special voting scheduled to take place on May 27th and 28th, 2024. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If citizens residing abroad intend to vote at the embassy, they should notify the IEC by April 22nd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Other important dates are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>4 March &#8211; Cut-off date for <strong>objections to the provisional voters\u2019 roll<\/strong>; <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>8 March &#8211; Cut-off date for <strong>submission of list of candidates and<\/strong> <strong>parties<\/strong>;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>12 March &#8211; Cut-off date for chief electoral officer to<strong> certify the voters&#8217; roll<\/strong>;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>10 April &#8211; <strong>Final candidate and party list<\/strong> contesting in the election <strong>to be presented<\/strong> following the objection process;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>17 &#8211; 18 May &#8211; <strong>Special voting at foreign missions<\/strong> (07h00 &#8211; 19h00);<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>27 &#8211; 28 May &#8211; <strong>Special voting to take place<\/strong> (09h00 &#8211; 17h00);<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>29 May &#8211; <strong>Official voting day<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/754631\/end-of-the-line-for-voter-registration\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">End of the line for voter registration<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Important updates about the upcoming general elections, including the pronouncement of a public holiday and the announcement of numerous cut-off dates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":315322,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[19254,19322],"class_list":["post-755013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-2024-elections","tag-general-elections"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=755013"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755013\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":755063,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755013\/revisions\/755063"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=755013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=755013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=755013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}