IEC encourages youth to vote
Voter registration gets underway in a few hours' time and the electoral commission wants the youth to make sure they are on the voters' roll.
WITH the first registration campaign for the 2016 Local Government Elections scheduled to kick off tomorrow through to Sunday, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) says it is targeting the youth.
They said that the youth remains under-represented in the voter’s roll.
Statistics show that South Africa’s voter’s roll currently has approximately 25 million voters and of these, the youth only make up less than ten million.
According to Statistics South Africa, those who are below the age of 35 years constitute about 66 percent of the total population of 54 million.
IEC chairperson, Glen Mashinini, said they they were encouraging young people to participate in elections.
“Our campaigns are primarily focusing on the youth. We are just going to call on people to update their details, but we are still trying to push the drive for youth to register,” said Mashinini.
He says all voting stations will open between 8am and 5pm on 5 and 6 March for eligible voters to register, re-register and to update their details.
To be able to vote, you must register as a voter. Once you’ve registered, your details appear on the voters’ roll. The voters’ roll helps the commission to plan an election and curb identify fraud as it shows how many voters to expect in each voting district.
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