Check your voter registration status

THE Independent Electoral Commission has dismissed rumours regarding voter registration residential status.

During the first voter registration weekend, 5 to 6 March, Westville resident, Nicky Armstrong, visited her local polling station and noted that her name was on the voters’ roll but there was no address alongside it. “I have lived here for 53 years and I was told by one of the officials on duty that I would not be allowed to vote if I did not have an address next to my name,” said Armstrong.

She noted that a handful of her friends also visited their polling stations and found their names appeared without corresponding addresses. “After being told this I sent out an e-mail to my contacts and told them they needed to check and make sure their address were linked to their names. I urge all Highway residents to make sure they are correctly entered on the voters’ roll,” she said.

According to Thabani Ngwira, the senior administrative officer of electoral matters at the KZN provincial office, voters did not need to have their residential address alongside their name to vote. “No voter will be disenfranchised because their addresses do not appear on the voters’ roll. As long as the voter appears on the segment of the voters of the voting district where they reside and registered, they will be allowed to vote. However, we encourage all registered voters to visit their nearest voting station or our offices situated in municipal offices to update their registration details on the voters’ roll,” said Ngwira.

There will be a second registration weekend on Saturday 9 April and Sunday 10 April. If you have moved since you last voted you will have to re-register to vote. Unlike the elections in 2014, this time around you have to vote in the ward where you live and at the voting station that serves your neighbourhood.

“During this last registration weekend, many anomalies became apparent. Voters that had voted at the same voting station for 20 years and had not moved found that they did not appear on the voters roll at that voting station, others checked online and by using the SMS system and were notified by these systems that they were registered, but when they went down to the voting station to double check found that they did not appear on the printed voters’ roll.

“I urge everyone to take the time to personally go down to their voting station with their ID and check if they appear on the voters’ roll, if you do not or if you have moved, please fill out the REC-1 form to re-register.

“I am arranging for both the IEC and Home Affairs to visit old age homes and schools in order to register those who are unable to get to their voting station,” said Ward 10 councillor, Rick Crouch.