IEC on survey on SA voter participation in elections

14 February 2006

The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) today released the results of
the “Survey on South African voter participation in elections” in Pretoria
ahead of the 2006 Municipal Elections on 1 March.

A number of institutions conduct surveys on voter patterns throughout the
world to help manage the effectiveness of the electoral process. It is
therefore, against this background that the IEC commissioned the Human Sciences
Research Council (HSRC) to conduct this survey, the Chairperson of the IEC, Dr
Brigalia Bam, said.

Dr Bam said it is important to get objective information about voter
participation in South Africa, specific to municipal elections. The survey
sought to determine the culture of voting behaviour throughout the country.
Other subsidiary objectives included:

* Determining the extent and location of unregistered potential voters in
South Africa;
* Assessing voting behaviours and patterns;
* Obtaining information regarding people’s perception of general governance
issues that might impact on voting behaviour;
* Determining awareness and knowledge of the forthcoming municipal elections;
and
* Assessing perceptions of the IEC.

“It is encouraging to note from the survey report the overwhelming interest
by South Africans in voting, after six successive elections. According to the
survey report, all registered respondents in the nine provinces indicated that
they are registered in the district in which they were currently residing
(91%),” said Dr Bam.

Voter registration for the upcoming municipal elections pointed to the fact
that South African democracy is maturing. Over 21 million of a possible 27
million eligible voters have now registered to vote in the coming elections.
This is indeed encouraging, taking into account that democracy is a new concept
in South Africa.

Democracy is an ongoing process and people are starting to internalise
multi-partyism. In these municipal elections alone, 97 political parties are
participating and 45 189 candidates countrywide will contest the elections.
This represents 19% growth in contesting political parties and 50% increase in
candidates participating compared to the 2000 municipal elections.

Almost 96, 3% of people polled in the survey, said they had one identity
document, while only 3, 7% said they did not have one. These results are
consistent for all the provinces with not one scoring lower than 90%.

To check your registration details or confirm where you should vote contact
the Call Centre toll free on 0800 11 8000 or visit the IEC website at http://www.elections.org.za or SMS your ID
number to 32810.

For enquiries contact:
Lydia Young
Media Liaison Officer
Cell: 082 650 8652

Issued by: Independent Electoral Commission
14 February 2006