IEC says it is ready for voter registration weekend.
Misha Jordaan/Gallo Images
- The IEC urges prospective voters to check whether they are registered.
- The IEC is scheduled to hold another registration round this weekend.
- In upcoming national and local elections, voters must vote at the station where they are registered.
The South African Electoral Commission (IEC) has stressed the importance of each voter confirming their location of registration.
“This is all the more serious in light of the general rule that voters must vote at the polling station where they are registered,” IEC Chief Electoral Officer Sai Mamabolo said at a press conference on Wednesday. Stated.
The IEC hosted a briefing ahead of the second round of voter registration on February 3 and 4 for this year's general election.
“Our collective goal as a nation is to ensure that all South African voters are able to vote in national and local elections in 2024.
Are you a registered voter? Make sure your details are up to date. To check your registration status, please SMS your ID number to 32810 (SMS/R1). Or, visit your station between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. on February 3-4 to see if you're ready. #SA election 24. pic.twitter.com/M7GEKMUnqP
— IEC South Africa (@IECSouthAfrica) January 30, 2024
“It is therefore natural to remind voters of the general principles of elections ahead of the second voter registration weekend.
“That means people vote at the polling station where they are registered,” Mamabolo said.
“The only exception to the general rule is that a voter may vote outside his or her registered voting precinct only if the voter first notifies the Commission by the date specified in the election calendar.
“This advance notice requirement is new and comes as a result of changes in the law.
“Details on the format of this notification will be outlined after the registration process.”
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Mamabolo said the IEC is ready for weekend registration.
“The Electoral Commission has therefore announced that 23,303 registration stations across the country are ready to accept eligible South Africans to register or verify their details ahead of the election.
“Registration stations will be operated from 08:00 and 17:00 on both days.”
He added that the IEC's first registration weekend in November was a success, saying: “We were able to engage with more than 2.9 million South Africans who registered or updated their details on the voters' register.”
“Weekend registration remains the most accessible registration method, as evidenced by the yield on the first registration weekend,” Mamabolo said.
He added that the IEC was pleased that the number of national voters had crossed the 27 million mark for the first time.
In the 2019 national and local elections, the certified voter list was 26.7 million people.
“We are thrilled to have reached this milestone ahead of our second public registration event scheduled for this weekend.”
Mamabolo said the IEC was also satisfied that the online registration platform “proved to be the mainstay of registration during the public voter registration weekend.”
“We recorded just under 200,000 new registrations since the November 2023 registration weekend. Overall registration activity for that period was 498,000.”
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He said the success of the first voter registration over the weekend was due to IEC's use of Voter Management Devices (VMD).
“VMD is the key technology to enable the registration process. Three business applications will be running on VMD this weekend as well.”
There are 29,318 registered voters from abroad, about 18,000 of whom registered last week.
Registration abroad can proceed through the online registration process developed by the IEC. This process can be accessed from the IEC website.
IEC Commissioner Janet Love was asked about former president Jacob Zuma, who has been accused of corruption and is currently leading the election campaign of the newly formed Umkhonto Wisizwe Party, about comments that the IEC was biased towards the ANC. , said it had found no evidence of bias and rejected “this type of thing.” The story of
He added that attempts to inject an “almost insurrectionist mood” into the country are undemocratic and unacceptable.
Love said:
It is completely irresponsible of us as citizens to undermine the process instead of enabling it.
Users can check whether they are properly registered through the following channels:
- IEC call center, 0800 118 000.
- SMS your ID number to 32810.
- Committee website www.elections.org.za.
- WhatsApp Chatbot (0600 88 0000).