Electoral Commission announces great turnout for registrations

The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has thanked the millions of South African voters for responding to the call by registering to vote in the 2019 general elections.

Voters across the country visited voting stations to update their details, while new voters registered to vote on the weekend of 10 and 11 March.

According to the commission, there was an overwhelming response citing over 2,76 million citizens who visited their stations over the past weekend.

This was one of the busiest voter registration weekends in recent years, according to the statement issued by the commission on 13 March.

Read: IEC’s new online system

Tumi Sethoba, the commissions’ communications officer, said over 400 000 (about 82 per cent) new voters were under the age of 30 and approximately 54 per cent was women.

Sethoba said Gauteng saw the highest number of new registrations at 23,69 per cent, followed by KwaZulu-Natal with 18,78 per cent and Limpopo with 17,03 per cent.

The voters’ roll now stands at 26 250 939 which is estimated to be approximately 75 per cent of the eligible voting population based on Statistics South Africa voting age population estimates.

“Despite the high number of new voter registrations over the past weekend Gauteng has the lowest overall registration at 67,3 per cent,” said Sethoba.

“The Electoral Commission would like to express its deepest gratitude to all those who assisted in making the weekend such a success. We thank the voters, political parties, media, civil society and the over 73 000 voting station staff who ran the registration process efficiently and effectively.”

The commission believes that such a high turnout with more than a year until the next general elections bodes well for participation in next year’s elections and the future of electoral democracy in our country.

Details: Tumi Sethoba SethobaT@elections.org.za

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