Electoral Commission embarks on a campaign to collect, correct & update addresses on the national voters’ roll

The Electoral Commission is today launching an online address capture campaign which will allow South Africa’s 26 million registered voters to check, confirm and update their address details via the Electoral Commission’s website.

The facility is available at www.elections.org.za/MyIEC.

The campaign is directed at all registered voters:

  • those for whom we do not have an address;

  • those whose addresses might be incomplete on our voters’ roll;

  • those who might have moved and need to update their addresses;

  • and those whose addresses remain the same must still confirm them for correctness.

The initiative forms part of the ongoing campaign by the Electoral Commission to obtain the addresses for all voters as well as ensuring voters are registered in correct voting district segments in line with the ruling of the Constitutional Court in June 2016.

In its ruling the Constitutional Court granted the Electoral Commission a reprieve from this obligation which allowed the 2016 Municipal Elections to proceed but ruled it must comply by June 2018.

Through a variety of initiatives the Electoral Commission has made significant progress in addressing the challenge including:

  • Increasing the proportion of complete addresses from 34% of registered voters in March 2016 to 73% of registered voters currently;

  • Reducing the proportion of incomplete or generic addresses from 34% in March 2016 to 15% currently; and

  • Reducing the percentage of registered voters without any recorded address from 32% to approximately 11%.

However, a considerable challenge remains to obtain addresses for about 3 million voters without any address and provide complete address information for the approximately 4 million voters who have an incomplete or generic address.

For registered voters who have access to the internet, it is easy: They only have to click, check and confirm their addresses on the online My IEC platform. Users will also be able to help friends and family to do the same.  

For those registered voters who do not have access to the internet, it is proposed to open voting stations during 2018 to allow voters to check and provide address details face-to-face at their voting station.

The online campaign will be supported by a comprehensive communication campaign to explain and promote the facility via various media including television, radio, print and online.

The IEC Contact Centre (0800 11 8000) has also been activated Monday to Friday during office hours to assist voters.

ISSUED BY THE ELECTORAL COMMISSION

Ensuring free and fair elections

Centurion

11 October 2017

For media queries: Please contact Kate Bapela on 082 600 6386

For media interviews: Please email requests to [email protected]

Also find the IEC on -