More youth register to vote
The Independent Electoral Commission has thanked South Africans who came out in their numbers to register for next years national and provincial elections.
The commission’s spokesperson Kate Bapela said the registration process was characterised by smooth operations with the vast majority of stations opening on time, and people registering quickly and efficiently.
Gauteng had the second largest turnout of 572 395 after Kwazulu-Natal which recorded 620 864.
Facilitating this was a largely stable election workforce with extensive prior experience, the use of predominantly existing venues and facilities, and relatively stable and benign weather over the entire country for the weekend, said Bapela.
According to her, 2 512 219 million people were assisted at the countrys 22 263 registration stations. Of these 1 088 015 million were new voters registering for the first time.
Bapela said more than 80 percent of all new registrations were young people which helped to boost registration levels of those in the 20 to 29 age group from 49.1 percent to 54.5 percent.
In terms of gender, the new registrations were largely in line with the general population trend in South Africa with 53 percent women and 47 percent men.
Additional platforms of engagement including the website, SMS line, call centre and social media also helped to ensured rapid access to information
for voters and for election officials monitoring the process.
Those who failed to register can still register at their closest municipal electoral office during office hours on weekdays.
Call: IEC toll free on 0800 11 8000.
