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The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) says it processed more than 300,000 voter registrations by midday on the first day of the registration weekend around the country.
Most of the new registrations were young people in high-population provinces such as KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng, and the Eastern Cape, the electoral agency said on Saturday.
The IEC is this weekend undertaking a countrywide registration drive before the November 4 local government elections.
Early indications point to young persons as the majority of applicants. Since this morning [Saturday], our contact centre has facilitated and assisted 640,640 voters through direct contact centre queries, alongside more than 221 interactions via social media platforms.
— IEC deputy chief electoral officer Masego Sheburi
This is an opportunity for potential voters to physically register to vote at specific voting stations over and above the online platform that will remain open to take in new registrations beyond the weekend.
“We remind the nation; by midday, more than 330,000 voter registration applications had been processed. Just more than 300,000 transactions were processed on the voter management devices (VMD) at voting stations, while 30,000 were applications on the online platform,” said IEC deputy chief electoral officer Masego Sheburi.
“It is worth noting that the online platform is available 24 hours a day. So, if voters experience difficulty, for whatever reason, they could try later at a point where there is no traffic on the network. The voter registration portal remains available for use before [and] beyond the voter registration weekend.”
According to Sheburi, the IEC’s predictions were spot on that most voter registrations would come from high-population provinces.
“Early indications point to young persons as the majority of applicants. Since this morning [Saturday], our contact centre has facilitated and assisted 640,640 voters through direct contact centre queries, alongside more than 221 interactions via social media platforms.”
According to Sheburi, the registration weekend got off to a positive and “overwhelming” start with almost all of the more than 23,000 voting stations around the country opening on time and operating without any major hindrances except the few that were affected by community protests.
“The protests in communities and their impact on voting stations: there are just under 16 voting stations that still remain closed owing to community protests. Those have nothing to do with the work of the commission, and we can only ask those members of the community who have grievances to raise their grievances in a manner that does not impede the exercise of the political rights by those among our countrymen and women who are minded to avail themselves of the convenience offered by a station-based voter registration weekend.”
The IEC has deployed 48,200 electoral officials around the country for this weekend’s voter registration process.
Sheburi said that on voting day, a voter will only be allowed to vote at the voting station where their name appears on the voters’ roll.
TimesLIVE
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