Prison groups in bid to stop poll over IDs

AS South Africans living abroad head to the polls today, prisoners in the country claim they are being deprived of their right to vote because they do not have identity documents.

Yesterday the Corrections and Civil Rights Movement, together with the South African Prisoners Organisation for Human Rights and leader of both organisations, Golden Miles Bhudu, headed to the High Court in Pretoria in an urgent bid to halt the election.

They claimed that thousands of prisoners were effectively being barred from voting as they did not have identity documents.

According to the Electoral Commission (IEC), fewer than 10000 of close to 160000 prisoners are registered to vote.

Bhudu had asked for an order that the Home Affairs Department arrange and pay for them to urgently get temporary identity documents. However, Judge Sulette Potteril struck the matter from the roll because the court file was empty.

Potteril said that she would not entertain the matter as the "urgency is going out of the window".

Attorney for the applicants, Andries Nkome, confirmed his clients would apply for leave to appeal the ruling. – Aarti J Narsee and Siviwe Feketha