It is a case of “ready, steady, register!” as the Election Commission today gave the thumbs up for readiness ahead of this weekend’s registration drive ahead of next year’s national and provincial elections.
Everything is in place for eligible voters to visit the 22 263 registration stations between 8am and 5pm on Saturday and Sunday where 45 795 election officials will be standing by to register new voters and to verify the registration details of existing voters.
The voting districts represent a 7% increase over the 20 859 districts in place for the 2011 local government election. The growth reflects an expansion of voting districts in predominantly rural areas with increases of 15% in the Free State, 10% in Limpopo and 9% each in the North West and KwaZulu-Natal to reduce the distance required for voters to travel to voting stations.
All registration materials have been delivered to 8 metropolitan councils and 226 local municipal councils and will be delivered over the next two days to the registration stations in readiness for opening on Saturday morning.
Each station receives a copy of its current voters’ roll reflecting the voters registered in that voting district, REC1 registration forms for new voters in the district, “Zip-Zip” machines to capture the bar-code on voters’ ID and to print a registration receipt, and banners and posters to help identify the registration stations.
Just under 30 000 “Zip-Zip” machines have undergone testing and battery checks to ensure they are ready for the weekend. The “Zip-Zip’ would be in an optimal functional condition as a result of these testing procedures they have undergone.
To find their registration station voters can call the IEC call centre on 0800 11 8000 or visit the IEC website at www.elections.org.za. Registered voters can also check where they are registered by smsing their ID number to 32810 (standard sms rates apply).
To register eligible voters need to be in possession of a green bar-coded ID book, a Temporary ID Certificate (TIC) or the new smart card ID. The commission is grateful to the Department of Home Affairs which has agreed to open its branches on Saturday and Sunday to coincide with the registration station hours (8am to 5pm) for the collection of ID books, smartcard IDs or Temporary Identity Certificates (TICs).
Registration stations are located at a wide variety of premises which are leased by the Electoral Commission for registration weekends and voting days. These include schools (65%), community and civic halls (10%), places of worship (7%) and other community venues. Approximately 7% will use temporary facilities including tents and other temporary structures, and there are 30 mobile registration stations which are used in rural areas which span larger areas.
Awareness of the registration weekend has been supported by an extensive communications campaign on television, radio, billboards, posters and print adverts. In addition, for the first time an extensive campaign has been conducted on mobile and digital platforms including mxit, sms, facebook and twitter as part of a campaign to raise awareness among the youth of the need to register for elections.
This communication is having the desired effect. The number of people who “liked” the IEC’s FaceBook page increased from about 1000 to over 10 000 in the first 24 hours of launching the social media campaign and has subsequently climbed to 27 500. We also have over 15 000 followers on Twitter.
We are currently engaging with nearly 500 people a day via social media channels and about 1 500 calls a day on the IEC call centre in the lead up to the weekend around how to register, why to register and where to register.
In addition the Electoral Commission’s Outreach teams have conducted over 1 000 community education sessions across the country. Young people make up the bulk of South Africa’s population with mid-year population estimates released by Statistics South Africa in May 2013 show that 65.7% of the population is under 35 years old and 73% are under 40.
Despite this, an analysis of voter registration as at 31 October 2013 shows that less than 50% of eligible voters under the age of 30 are currently registered with just 8.7% of eligible voters aged 18 to 19 registered compared to average registration levels of over 90% for older age groups.
As at 31 October 2013, there were 23 139 142 people registered to vote representing 73.6% of the voting age population according to latest census figures. Through its registration drive, the Electoral Commission hopes to increase registrations to 80% of the voting age population in line with levels of previous elections which would require an additional 2 million voters to register.
Currently the Free State has the higher percentage of voter registration at 80% followed by the Eastern Cape (79.6%), Northern Cape (77.6%), Limpopo (77.0%), KwaZulu Natal (75.0%) and North West (73.5). The provinces with the lowest registration percentages are Mpumalanga (70.3%) and Western Cape (70.3%) and Gauteng (69.2%).
For media queries:
Kate Bapela
Cell: 072 236 2771
E-mail: spokesperson@elections.org.za
