Voters' roll grows to 21.6-million
13 November 2008
The Independent Electoral Commission says the past weekend's voter registration drive was "an overwhelming success", with more than 3.6-million South Africans having visited over 19 000 registration stations to register for the first time, re-register, or inspect their details on the voters' roll.
"The drive has far surpassed our expectations, and the IEC is delighted to see the success of the weekend drive to register new voters, especially the youth, who represent a majority of the weekend registration activity at 77.9%," IEC chairperson Brigalia Bam said in a statement this week.
"We are proud to say that this war our most successful registration drive since 2000."
The huge turnout came despite rainy weather over large parts of the country.
New, young applicants
A total of 1 648 189 new applications were received, while a further 1 752 596 currently registered citizens applied for registration in a new voting district following a change of address. A further 293 871 citizens re-registered in the same voting district they were registered in before, with the total number of recorded visits to the registration stations coming to 3 694 656.
KwaZulu-Natal had the highest number of new registrations with 451 030, followed by Gauteng with 369 623 and the Eastern Cape with 193 444.
77.9% of all new registrations were in the youth category, with 105 893 new registration applications from 16- to 17-year-olds and 342 639 from 18- to 19-year-olds. In the 20-29 year age bracket, 835 447 new registration applications were received.
Following the registration drive, the number of South Africans on the voters' roll has increased 7.61%, from 20 128 569 to 21 661 171 eligible voters, with registered voters between the ages 18-29 increasing from 20.4% of all registered voters to 24.31%.
Gender split
In terms of the gender split, the present pattern of more women than men participating repeated itself, with a total of 882 536 women applying for registration for the first time whilst only 765 653 men did so. Only in the age bracket 40 to 49 years did male applications (51.18%) exceeded those of women (48.82%).
"On the whole male registrations thus remain lower than demographics indicate it should be and this remains an area of concern," the IEC said.
Second chance
Bam said the IEC was pleased with the results of the registration weekend, but also recognised that there may be people who missed the opportunity to register.
These people may do so on any weekday during normal office hours at their local office of the IEC in each of the municipalities. People who registered over the weekend or re-registered may already verify their new applications by visiting the IEC website or sending their identity number per SMS to 32810.
The IEC will also arrange a second registration opportunity for all South Africans who wish to register as new voters and those who wish to confirm their voting status early in 2009.
The voters' roll closes on the date on which the President proclaims the election date.
SAinfo reporter
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