‘23% eligible voters are not registered’

At least nine million South Africans who are eligible to vote were not registered, said the IEC.

Pretoria - At least nine million South Africans who are eligible to vote were not registered, the Independent Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) said on Thursday ahead of the voter registration drive this weekend.

Chief electoral officer Mosotho Moepya said the voter’s roll currently had 24.9 million registered voters.

“Based on the latest voting age population estimates provided by StatsSA, there are currently 34 million citizens eligible to vote, placing the current registration level at 73 percent of all eligible voters. We are making an appeal that they come forward and register,” Moepya told reporters in Pretoria.

Of the nine million eligible voters not yet registered, 4.3 million of them were aged between 30 and 39. At least 1.5 million unregistered voters were youth aged between 18 and 19, and one million were over the age of 50.

Gauteng has the highest number of registered of voters at 5,9 million, followed by KwaZulu-Natal at 5 million and Eastern Cape at 3.1 million.

Moepya said there would be an increase in voting stations as part of the IEC’s efforts to making voting accessible to voters.

“A total of 22 570 voting stations will open this weekend, which is 1 711 more stations than the previous municipal elections and 307 more than the 2014 national and provincial elections,” said Moepya.

“The increase in voting stations reflects not only the increase in wards, following demarcation process but is also part of the ongoing efforts by the IEC to enhance accessibility for voters.”

Each voting station will have a copy of the voters’ roll showing the voters currently registered to vote in that area.

Voter registration, which includes updating of details for those who changed residential addresses, is scheduled to take place on Saturday and Sunday.

African News Agency