Eligible voters have until 5pm today to register or update their details on the voters’ roll.
The Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta), Des van Royen has proclaimed the election date. Spokesperson for the Independent Electoral Commission, Kate Bapela said those who want to update their details or register to vote must visit their local IEC offices located at all municipal offices.
A green bar-coded ID is all that is needed in order to register. Bapela, on the other hand, encouraged first-time voters, or those who want to update their details, to download, fill out and print the REC1 form from the IEC website. The REC1 form is an application form which voters need to fill out when registering to vote.
“Once they have done that, they can submit the form at their local IEC office and this will speed up the registration process.”
The election date will be proclaimed amid the much-awaited Constitutional Court ruling on whether all voters’ addresses must be included on the voters’ roll. Bapela, however, mentioned that they cannot pre-empt the ruling.
“The IEC has a Constitutional deadline that it needs to abide by. We also have legal steps that must be followed in the process of bringing elections, and the proclamation of the election date is one of those steps,” said Bapela.
Once the election date is proclaimed, the voters’ roll will be closed and this means no other names may be added or removed after that. According to Bapela, the voters’ roll will only be open again once the next set of elections is announced. The highly-contested local government elections will take place on 3 August.
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