The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) would like to thank the millions of South Africans who registered over the weekend of 9 and 10 November for next year’s national and provincial elections.
In Mogale City a total of 18 274 voters registered of which 7 204 were new voter registrations, 1 840 were re-registrations in the same voting district and 9 230 were voters who moved to another voting district.
The NEWS visited some of the voting registration stations around the city and some seemed busier than others, with the number of registrations among the youth being very disappointing.
Political parties were at the voter stations and encouraged people on the streets to take the time to register.
Lydia Young, the spokesperson for the IEC says the registrations were characterised by smooth operations with the vast majority of stations opening on time and people registering quickly and efficiently.
“In addition the registration process enjoyed the overwhelming support of all political parties, community leaders and the population throughout the country,” she says.
Additional platforms of engagement including the website, SMS line, call centre and social media networks also helped to ensure rapid access to information both for voters and for election officials monitoring the process.
The end result was a smooth and efficient registration process in which over two and a half million people were assisted at the country’s 22 263 registration stations.
“Most encouragingly, over 80 per cent of all new registrations were young people, helping to boost registration levels of those in the 20 to 29 age group from 49,1 per cent to 54,5 per cent over the weekend,” says Young.
“While the number of registered voters aged 18 to 19 almost tripled from 167 535 prior to the weekend to 434 370, the registration percentage of 22,6 per cent remains the lowest for all age groups and presents an on-going challenge for all South Africans to encourage a new generation of voters to participate as we celebrate our 20th anniversary of democracy.”
In terms of gender, the new registrations were largely in line with the general population trend in South Africa with 53 per cent women and 47 per cent men.
In terms of provincial outcomes, KwaZulu-Natal had the highest turnout with 620 864 followed by Gauteng (572 395).
Young says they are encouraging those who have not taken the opportunity to register to do so before next year’s elections. They can do so by visiting their local municipal offices.
This is how wards in the Mogale City Local Municipality district fared during registration weekend, with the number of registrations added in brackets:
• Ward 30 (1 329) was the only ward that saw more than 1 000 registrations.
• Wards 1 (604), 2 (822) , 3 (577), 14 (703), 16 (611), 19 (174), 20 (593), 21 (598), 22 (653), 25 (921), 26 (651), 27 (650), 28 (720), 29 (640), 33 (544) and 34 (615) had more than 500 registrations.
• Wards 4 (478), 5 (292), 6 (220), 7 (330), 8 (358), 9 (446), 10 (254), 11 (450), 12 (277), 13 (387), 15 (352), 17 (421), 18 (630), 19 (174), 24 (269), 31 (375) and 32 (427) had more than 100 registrations.
