Centurion – The Electoral Commission would like to thank the millions of South Africans who responded so positively to the call to register at the weekend for next year’s national and provincial elections.
Throughout the weekend and the country the registration was characterised by smooth operations with the vast majority of stations opening on time and people registering quickly and efficiently. Facilitating this was a largely stable elections workforce with extensive prior experience, the use of predominantly existing venues and facilities, and relatively stable and benign weather over the entire country for the weekend.
In addition the registration process enjoyed the overwhelming support of all political parties, community leaders and the population throughout the country with only a tiny number of incidents recorded on Saturday. These isolated incidents were quickly resolved with the support of political parties, community leaders and security services.
Additional platforms of engagement including the website, SMS line, call centre and social media also helped to ensured rapid access to information both for voters and for election officials monitoring the process.
The end result was a smooth and efficient registration process in which 2 512 219 were assisted at the country’s 22 263 registration stations.
Of these 1 088 015 – or 43.3% – were new voters registering for the first time. Their commitment to democracy has helped boost overall registration levels to almost 77% of eligible voters from 73.6% before the weekend.
A further 1.17 million people (or 46.6%) used the opportunity to change their existing registration to a different voting station and about 10.1% (253 098) re-registered at their existing voting station.
Most encouragingly, over 80% of all new registrations were young people, helping to boost registration levels of those in the 20 – 29 age group from 49.1% before the weekend to 54.5% today.
While the number of registered voters aged 18 – 19 almost tripled from 167 535 prior to the weekend to 434 370 today, the registration percentage of 22.6% remains the lowest for all age groups and presents an on-going challenge for all South Africans to encourage a new generation of voters to participate as we celebrate our 20th anniversary of democracy.
In terms of gender, the new registrations were largely in line with the general population trend in South Africa with 53% women and 47% men.
In terms of provincial outcomes, KwaZulu-Natal had the highest turnout with 620 864 followed by Gauteng (572 395), the Eastern Cape (339 614), Western Cape (295 497), Mpumalanga (197 551), Limpopo (178 800), Free State (140 304), North West (116 438) and Northern Cape (50 756).
These figures helped boost overall registration levels in KwaZulu-Natal by 4.1% to 79.1% overall registration, followed by the Western Cape which rose 3.6% to 73.9%, the Eastern Cape up 3.4% to 82.9%, Northern Cape up 3% to 80.7%, Gauteng up 2.9% to 72.1% and Mpumalanga which also rose 2.9% to 73.2% overall registration. The lowest increases were recorded in the North West which increased 1.7% to 75.2% voter registration, Limpopo which increased 2.2% top 79.2% overall and the Free State which boosted its registration by 2.5% to 82.5% overall.
The Electoral Commission would like to thank all its stakeholders for helping to ensure a highly successful registration process including the Department of Home Affairs which opened its offices over the weekend to facilitate the collection of new IDs and the issuing of Temporary ID Certificates, and the South African Police Service (SAPS) which provided security over the weekend.
We are also grateful to political parties and the Party Liaison Committee for their support for the registration weekend as well as community leaders and other key stakeholders.
The Commission would also like to express its gratitude and appreciation for the passion, dedication and commitment of over 45 795 election officials who delivered yet another efficient and professional service to South Africa.
Finally, we would like to encourage all those who have still not taken the opportunity to register to do so before next year’s elections. They can do so by visiting their local municipal offices.
Download detailed results of the voter registration weekend:
ISSUED BY THE ELECTORAL COMMISSION
Ensuring free, fair and credible elections
12 November 2013
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