A disappointing turnout at voting registration
IEC still hopeful that people will register before next year's elections.
Party members participating in community registrations say the turnout of people registering to vote was raIECher disappointing this past weekend.
Duduzile Zikalala, a party agent said on the last day of registration the number of people who came to register slowly increased with more of the younger residents of Zola being seen at different registration stations, mostly between midday and the late afternoon.
“The people who have been coming the most are the older residents of the community, and their impact wouldn’t be the same as if the youth came,” said Celokhuhle Ngobane.
The Independent Electoral Commission of South Africa is still to make a decision if and when a second phase of registration will take place next year just before elections, with the hope that more people will be registering to vote and the turnout might increase.
When trying to find out why the turnout was disappointing, officials and party agents say the low rates may be due to dissatisfaction with serves delivery, unemployment and other social ills and people do not see the point in voting.
“The youth of today are tomorrow’s future, if they don’t like something they are the only ones who have the power to make the necessary change.
“The only political voice the youth has is a vote, they misuse that, they shall stay politically silent yet remain under the same situations that make them unhappy,” Kanyisile Luvuno said.
The councillor Siphiwe Zulu notes that the low turnout rate has a number of contributing factors towards it.
“We shouldn’t only just look at the fact that people are unpleasant with poor service delivery but we should also look at other outlets like the media, television especially.
“The news reporting towards the registration period seems to portray people as unhappy and they shape the news in such a way that discourages people from voting.
“For example, they give out the message that people are disinterested in participating in their democracy even before the time comes for them to actively participate,” Zulu said.
Zulu says the media could play a positive role by encouraging people, especially the youth, to use their vote wisely.
