For the first time in democratic South Africa's history, the number of voters nationwide has surpassed the 27 million mark. The Electoral Commission (IEC) says it expects that number to increase as it prepares for the final round of voter registration this weekend.
The IEC, in cooperation with the Department of Corrections, has been campaigning for the registration of inmates for three days. The country's electoral body has significantly increased the registration of South Africans living abroad.
The IEC briefed the media on Wednesday that it is ready to hold its second national registration drive this weekend on 3 and 4 February, with more South Africans than ever before scheduled for later this year. announced that they are registering to vote for the next general election.
IEC Chief Electoral Officer Sai Mamabolo said: “For the first time, the number of eligible voters has reached the 27 million mark, compared to 26.7 million in the 2019 national and local elections. exceeded.'' He is very pleased to have reached this milestone of 27 million people on the voter rolls ahead of the second registration weekend event scheduled for this weekend. ”
In another significant development, Mamabolo said just under 200,000 new registrations were recorded on the IEC's online platform since the national registration weekend in November 2023. He added that registration activity on the platform during this period was approximately 500,000 people.
According to Mamabolo, registration activity on the platform reached about 500,000 people during that period. But the IEC wants to ensure that the majority of South Africa's 43 million voters, including prisoners, are registered.
In 2019, only 15,000 out of more than 150,000 prisoners voted. Now, the Department of Corrections is setting higher standards and wants 100,000 inmates to sign up.
Deputy Corrections Minister Patekil Holomisa said it was important that prisoners' constitutional right to vote was upheld.
“We are members of the United Nations body and one of its declarations is the so-called Nelson Mandela Rules that prisoners must be treated with dignity because prisoners continue to be treated with dignity. Although the majority of countries do not give their citizens the right to vote truth to the signatories of the Regulation, a small number of countries around the world do give this right to prisoners.”
Meanwhile, registrations of South Africans living abroad have increased significantly.
Mamaboro explains as follows. “The international tier of the register of overseas voters stood at around 10,000 South Africans ahead of the weekend of overseas registration. After the registration weekend of out-of-county residents, the number of voters in this part of the register now stands at 29,318. Registration abroad may continue to be done through the online registration process developed by the Commission and accessible from the Commission's website.''
The IEC is committed to an incident-free registration weekend on February 3rd and 4th. Polling stations across the country will be open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Video: IEC briefs media on plans for 2nd Voter Registration Weekend:
