MUNICIPAL elections will be held between 18 May and 16 August this year, and Highway residents are urged to register in order to vote.
The community can apply for registration during office hours at the local Electoral Commission office responsible for their voting district, or register to vote on special registration days, often called registration weekends, of which one is 5 and 6 March.
To register at your local Electoral Commission office, always call first to make an appointment. You must be a South African citizen, be at least 16 years old (you can only vote from age 18 though), have a green, bar-coded identification (ID) book, smartcard ID, or valid temporary identity certificate (TIC) to vote.
To register, by law, you must apply in person (no online or e-mail registrations are permitted) and you must bring the required documents.
No other forms of identification are accepted (not even passports or drivers’ licences) and only original documents will be accepted. Please note that no proof of residence is required.
If you’ve moved, during municipal elections and by-elections you must vote at the voting station where you are registered, and you must register in the voting district in which you live most of the time. If you are already registered as a voter, and you have recently moved or you realise that you will be living in another place on election day (for example, if you are a student), you must go back to a registration point and fill in a form to change your registration details. You will then be moved to the correct voting district and your name will be put on the voters’ roll for that district.
Some residents voiced their opinions on whether they will vote or not this year:
Cherise Laas from Queensburgh, currently in Austria, said, “If I’m home in time, yes.”
Bianca Landsberg from Westville said she will vote and Nomfundo Mzimela said, “No, why waste my time?”
Dumisani Mabona said he will be voting because it was the wise thing to do: “It is the only way of pushing forward the ones we think are trustworthy,” he said.
If your voting district has changed during municipal elections and by-elections, you must vote at the voting station where you are registered, and you must register in the voting district in which you live most of the time.
If you have been informed that your voting district boundaries have changed, you may need to re-register in another voting district. To find out where your correct voting station is, please go to https://maps.elections.org.za/vsfinder/.
