By: Staff Reporter
The Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) said over 1.7 million voters registered with them over the two days of the registration weekend.
The Commission said the registration yield was inclusive of new registrations and voters correcting their registration details.
“Innovations introduced by the voter management device have increased the speed at which voter registration applications are processed. Approved applications already have their details and addresses captured on the voters roll. Previously, it would have taken weeks to capture address details of new applicants following a registration event,” spokesperson Kate Bapela said in a statement.
She said they registered 433 198 first time voters, 25 per cent of the total registration activity. Voters who were re-registering in the same or changed voting districts accounted for 1 277 811 applications.
“This is indicative that the message calling on voters to update their details to accord with political boundaries in which they are resident continues to resonate. The province with the highest registration activity is Kwazulu-Natal, with 358 384. This is followed by Gauteng province with 315 282. In third place is the Eastern Cape with 240 514,” she said.
Bapela said young people in the age category 16-29 accounted for 402 401 of the new registrations, which was 91 percent.
“Therefore, this registration effort has elicited a good response from young persons. A well-entrenched pattern of there being more female participants continue; 52 percent of all new registrations were female voters,” she said.
The Commission also welcomed the proclamation of the election date by the Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs. Bapela said the proclamation formally institutes the election phase in the re-constitution of municipal councils within the local sphere of government.
She added that the proclamation has made it possible for the Commission to publish an amended election timetable.
“The amendments to the election timetable are a consequence of the re-opening of the registration process. The amended timetable will be published in the Government Gazette today,” she said.
The Commission said some of the key electoral milestones include:
The candidate nomination process will now close at 17h00 on 21 September 2021. Final lists of candidates will be published on 29 September 2021, and candidates will be issued with certificates on 1 October 2021.
Copies of the provisionally compiled voters roll will be made available to electoral contestants between 21 and 23 September 2021. The Commission will make decisions in relation to objections raised on Friday, 24 September 2021. The voters-roll will be certified on 26 September 2021.
Applications for special votes opened today and will close on 4 October 2021.
Special votes will be cast on both the 30 and 31 October 2021.
Applicants who are unable to visit voting stations due to infirmity will be visited at homes or places of confinement, whilst all other successful candidates will cast special votes at the voting stations.
