THE Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) said it’s ready to host its second leg of voters’ registration on Saturday, 3 February and Sunday, 4 February in preparation for the general elections.
This would be the last voting registration before the 2024 general elections, whose date will be announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa.
On Wednesday, 31 January, IEC chief electoral officer Sy Mamabolo briefed the media on their preparations and noted that the online registration platform has proved to be the most preferred of registrations in between the general registrations weekends.
“We are ready to welcome eligible South Africans at 23 303 registration stations across the country to register or check their details ahead of the elections. Registration stations will operate from 8am until 5pm on both days.
“The Electoral Commission held a successful registration weekend in November 2023 and transacted with over 2,9 million South Africans who registered and/or updated their details on the voters’ roll,” he said.
Mamabolo said the registration weekends remain the most accessible modality of registration as affirmed by the yield from the first registration weekend.
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“The commission is happy to report the achievement of two historic milestones. First is that the national voters’ roll has for the first time surpassed the 27 million mark. In the 2019 NPE, the certified voters’ roll stood at 26,7 million.
“We are encouraged that we have reached this milestone ahead of the second general registration event scheduled for this weekend,” he said.
He said secondly is the online registration platform and that they recorded just under 200 000 new registrations since the registration weekend in November 2023.
Mamabolo said overall registration activity in that period is 498 000.
He also highlighted the provinces that received more registrations, starting with Gauteng, which saw 6,3 million registrations, followed by KZN with 5,5 million registrations, the Eastern Cape with 3,3 million, Western Cape with 3,2 million, Mpumalanga with 1,9 million, North West with 1,7 million, Free State with 1,4 million and lastly Northern Cape with 637 000 registrations.
He mentioned that the biggest age group on the voters’ roll is between 30 and 39 at 6,7 million registrations, followed by the 40 to 49 age group at 5,9 million.
Mamabolo urged South Africa to make use of this voter registration weekend to register for the elections, urging eligible voters to visit registration stations to inspect or update their registration details or to do so online.
“It is crucially important for each voter to check where they are registered. This is more acute in light of the general rule that a voter must vote at the voting station at which that voter is registered,” he said.
