WATCH: IEC says more than a million new voters added to voters roll

More than a million new voters were added to the voters’ roll since November, the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) said on Tuesday.

The IEC was briefing the media on this past weekend’s final voter registration exercise extending its gratitude to the millions of South Africans who heeded the call to use the registration weekends to register for the forthcoming 2024 National and Provincial Elections.

Watch IEC CEO Sy Mamabolo speaking about voter registration

[WATCH] Chief Electoral Officer Sy Mamabolo says following the second voter registration weekend, the voter's roll now stands at 27.4 million. #Newzroom405 pic.twitter.com/9rUyRjJ6ED

— Newzroom Afrika (@Newzroom405) February 6, 2024

Young voters

IEC CEO Sy Mamabolo said the registration weekend saw a good turnouts from South Africans.

“The two registration weekends have given the country a growth of 1,2 million on the voters’ roll. Following these two registration drives the voters’ roll now stands at 27.4 million.”

Mamabolo also said there was an increase in young people registering to vote.

“New registrations for young persons stands at 352 524. KwaZulu-Natal again leads with young persons’ registration at 103 647 followed by Gauteng at 82 168, and in third is the Eastern Cape at 43 673.

“As indicated, the voters’ roll now stands at 27.4 million. Gauteng remains the province with the biggest voting population at 6.4 million voters, followed by Kwazulu-Natal at 5.7 million, then the Eastern Cape at 3.4 million voters,” Mamabolo said.

ALSO READ: WATCH: ANC will get more than 50% in election, ‘I can smell victory’ − Ramaphosa

Next phase

Mamabolo said with two registration weekends under its belt, the IEC will now turn its focus to ramping up preparations for the elections.

“The next phase of the electoral programme includes these important activities. The Commission is calling for submissions from interested parties on the distribution of the 200 regional seats of the National Assembly. The period for public submissions closes on 20 February 2024.

“The Commission will consider the submissions and representations together with voter population data in each region to determine the spread of the 200 seats.  This work is an important precursor to candidate nominations as it will enable political parties to know how many candidates they may field in each respective region to national list,” Mamabolo said.

Mamabolo also reminded those voters who are still not registered to go online or visit the offices of the Electoral Commission in municipalities to register.

“Registration will remain open until proclamation of the election date.”

Targets

The target for this year’s election was set at 39.7 million people, but only 27.4 million registered to vote.

However, in the 2019 national and provincial elections, the voters roll stood at 26.7 million (26 756 649) people. This means there are 700 000 more people registered than the last elections.

Voter turnout in 2019 was 66.05%. If there is a similar turnout, only 18 million people would have voted.

The Electoral Commission also announced a portal to capture signatures supporting nomination to contest the elections is now available for use by unrepresented political parties and independent candidates.

ALSO READ: Old vote rules as youth is missing in action