Gauteng one of the leading provinces with the highest number of registered voters

Voters in the upcoming elections will face the biggest choice yet in a national election after a record number of 48 political parties met the legal requirements to contest this year’s elections.

This is 19 more parties than those which contested the 2014 national elections.

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The parties which will contest the national elections (in alphabetical order) are:

African Christian Democratic Party

African Congress Of Democrats

African Content Movement

African Covenant

African Democratic Change

African Independent Congress

African National Congress

African People’s Convention

African Renaissance Unity

African Security Congress

African Transformation Movement

Afrikan Alliance Of Social Democrats

Agang South Africa

Al Jama-ah

Alliance For Transformation For All

Azanian People’s Organisation

Better Residents Association

Black First Land First

Capitalist Party Of South Africa

Christian Political Movement

Compatriots Of South Africa

Congress Of The People

Democratic Alliance

Democratic Liberal Congress

Economic Emancipation Forum

Economic Freedom Fighters

Forum 4 Service Delivery

Free Democrats

Front Nasionaal/Front National

Good

Independent Civic Organisation Of South Africa

Inkatha Freedom Party

International Revelation Congress

Land Party

Minority Front

National Freedom Party

National Peoples Ambassadors

National People’s Front

Pan Africanist Congress Of Azania

Patriotic Alliance

People’s Revolutionary Movement

Power Of Africans Unity

Socialist Revolutionary Workers Party

South African Maintenance And Estate Beneficiaries Association

South African National Congress Of Traditional Authorities

United Democratic Movement

Vryheidsfront Plus

Women Forward.

The deadline also saw a new record number of parties contesting all provincial elections with the largest number of parties contesting Gauteng (36) and the smallest number contesting the Northern Cape (21).

Furthermore, 26 756 898 million voters are eligible to cast their votes in the national and provincial elections following the certification of the voters’ roll.

The voters’ roll was certified and published on the Electoral Commission website earlier this week following the publication of the provisional voters’ roll for scrutiny and objection.

Digital copies of the voters’ roll are also being provided to all political parties which will contest the elections.

Since its inception ahead of the 1999 national and provincial elections, the voters’ roll has shown steady growth of over 47 per cent and contains the highest number of registered voters to date, recording an increase of 1 366 748 voters since 2014.

Registered voters over the past national and provincial elections:

• 1999-18.17 million

• 2004-20.67 million

• 2009-23.18 million

• 2014-25.39 million

• 2019- 26.74 million

Of the 26.74 million registered voters, 14 716 879 are women (55 per cent) which is four per cent above of the demographic split of the South African population according to Statistics South Africa (based on 2018 Midyear Population Estimates).

The provinces with the highest number of registered voters are Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape.

In terms of age, the biggest category of voters is those aged 30 – 39 years old (6 685 472) which represents 24.99 per cent of the roll.

Only those voters whose names appear on the certified voters’ roll are eligible to vote in the May 8 elections.

Voters must take their ID document (either a green bar-coded ID, a smartcard ID or a valid temporary ID certificate) with them when they go to vote at their voting station.