Centurion – The Electoral Commission would like to
thank the millions of South African voters for their overwhelming response to
the call to update the voters’ roll ahead of next year’s elections.
A total of 2 767 139 citizens visited their voting
stations over the past weekend to either register as new voters or to update
their registration, making this one of the busiest voter registration weekends
in recent years.
Of the 2.76 million voters who visited their voting
stations this weekend:
1
390 861 used the opportunity to re-register in their current voting district;
885
758 used the opportunity to change their registration to a new voting district;
and
490 520 were voters registering for the first
time.
Of the new voters registrations, over 400 000 (or
82 percent) were under the age of 30 and approximately 54 percent were women.
The province of Gauteng saw the most new
registration at 23.69 per cent followed by KwaZulu-Natal with 18.78 per cent
and the Limpopo with 17.03 per cent.
The voters’ roll now stands at 26 250 939 voters which
is estimated to be approximately 75 percent of the eligible voting population
based on Statistics South Africa voting age population estimates.
With the results of the registration weekend
factored, the Eastern Cape is the province with the highest level of
registration at 87 per cent followed by the Free State at 82.2 per cent and KwaZulu-Natal,
Limpopo and Northern Cape at 79 percent. Despite the high number of new voter
registrations over the past weekend Gauteng has the lowest overall registration
at 67.3 per cent.
The weekend also saw a large spike in online
activity with over 50 000 registered voters using the website and our App to
check and update their address details. Since the online facility was
introduced last year over 100 000 voters have used it to check and update their
details.
The online facility at http://www.elections.org.za/MyIEC and our App remain available 24 hours a day for
registered voters to check and update their address details. The average
duration spent online or on the app is just less than 6 minutes.
It is estimated that approximately 300 000 who
visited voting stations are among the 2.8 million voters for whom the Electoral
Commission did not have an address going into the weekend. The completed
registration forms will now be scanned and all demographic and address details
captured over the coming weeks to determine the final impact on this aspect of
the voters’ roll.
In terms of provincial breakdown of the
registration activity, the most populated provinces predictably had the highest
participation with KwaZulu-Natal recording 558 728 interactions with voters
(20.19 percent) followed by Gauteng with 517 703 (18.71 percent) and the
Eastern Cape with 460 168 (16.63 percent).
Weekend registration activity at voting stations
saw participation double on Sunday with 1.8 million recorded interactions
compared to about 955 000 on Saturday. This is in line with previous trends
during registration weekends.
The Electoral Commission would like to express its
deepest gratitude to all those who assisted in making the weekend such a
success.
Our thanks especially to:
First
and foremost the voters themselves for turning out in huge numbers to update
the voters’ roll and ensure it can form the foundation for free and fair
elections
Secondly
to the political parties and their leaders and members who mobilized throughout
the country in the lead-up to and on the weekend itself to encouraged all voters to get involved
To
the media and civil society organisation, NGOs, faith-based organisations and
traditional leaders and all other stakeholders which promoted and highlighted
the campaign and provided key information to voters
Also
our thanks to the over 73 000 voting station staff who ran the registration
process efficiently and effectively
And
finally our appreciation to the various state security and other government
agencies which assisted in ensure a safe and peaceful process.
The Electoral Commission believes that such a high
turnout with more than a year until the next general elections bodes extremely
well for participation in next year’s elections and the future of electoral
democracy in our country.
View/download statistics: March 2018 Address & Registration Weekend Statistics
ENDS
13
March 2018
ISSUED BY THE ELECTORAL COMMISSION
Ensuring free and fair elections
Centurion
For media queries: Please contact Kate Bapela on 082
600 6386
For media interviews: Please email requests to [email protected]
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