Dr Brigalia Bam, Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, today expressed satisfaction with the combined result of the two registration weekends. She said that there were 1 081 667 new registrations, 1 417 089 persons re-registered in a different voting district as a result of a change in address or as a result of demarcation changes and 233 211 persons re-registered in the same voting district mostly as a result of demarcation issues. Over the two registration weekends a total of 2 731 967 persons registered or re-registered as voters apart from numerous others who verified their details on the voters’ rolls that were available at every voting station for public inspection and this was a very good outcome.
Dr Bam said that for previous municipal elections the number of voters on the voters’ roll increased by 1,67% for the 2000/01 elections, by 1,84% for the 2006 elections and by 1,9% for the 2011 elections. She said that since the first registration of voters in 1998 there has been 4 416 087 recorded deaths among registered voters but that the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has still managed to consistently increase the number of registered voters and that it has done so at a steadily increasing rate.
Dr Bam said that the provincial spread of new registrations for the two registration weekends indicated that most occurred in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) (285 208) followed by Gauteng (200 751) and the Eastern Cape (157 581).
Dr Bam said that the registration drive on 5 and 6 March 2011 resulted in 1 325 265 persons having visited the 20 864 voting stations to register as first time voters or to re-register. She indicated that 547 651 new registrations took place; which is some 41% of the registration activities for the weekend. The number of persons who registered because of a change in address or demarcation changes came to 687 357 and 90 257 persons re-registered in the same voting district as a result of demarcation issues or just because they wanted to make very sure that they will be able to vote in the municipal elections.
She said that the participation of women in registration activity over the weekend came to just over 53% of total registration activity and those of men just under 47%. As far as new registrations are concerned about 80% was from young persons under the age of 30 years.
Dr Bam said that the highest number of new registrations for the last weekend were in KZN (150 344) followed by Gauteng (109 043), Western Cape (68 297) and the Eastern Cape (66 648).
Dr Bam indicated that the voters’ roll currently contains the details of some 23,6 million voters. Final verifications will take place in the next few days and the final number of persons on the voters’ roll for the municipal elections will be announced once it has been certified.
Dr Bam thanked the staff members of the IEC for their dedicated service and also expressed appreciation to all those that supported the IEC in its activities and in particular political parties for the role they played.
Voter registration for the 2011 municipal elections will be ongoing at municipal electoral offices during office hours until the proclamation of the elections by the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Authorities which is expected before the end of the week. For assistance to locate their municipal electoral office, voters can call the IEC toll free on 0800 11 8000 or visit the IEC website at www.elections.org.za.
Registered voters can also make use of these facilities to check their registration details or they can SMS their ID number to 32810.
Young voters are encouraged to follow registration and election developments on our newly created mobile site on mobi.elections.org.za or on twitter on www.twitter/ iecloveyoursa.
The detailed information is available in a PDF document and Excel spreadsheet on http://www.elections.org.za/content/DynamicDocs.aspxid=449&BreadCrumbId=274&LeftMenuId=251&name=home
For media queries please contact
Kate Bapela
Cell: 082 600 6386
For media interviews, please e-mail requests to: spokesperson@elections.org.za
