Johannesburg – South Africans across the nation actively participated in the Voter Registration Weekend, responding to the Electoral Commission of South Africa’s (IEC) call to register for the 2024 National and Provincial Elections.
According to Chief Electoral Officer Sy Mamabolo, during a press conference on Monday, approximately 2.9 million citizens interacted with the IEC during the weekend of November 18-19, 2023. A significant number, about 2.7 million, visited voting stations to register or update their details, while 196,511 utilized the online portal for the same purpose.
In total, the registration activities involved 2,904,037 individuals, with 568,374 eligible citizens registering for the first time, constituting 19.57% of the total registration activity. There were also a significant number of re-registrations, both within the same and different voting districts.
The IEC expressed gratitude to all South Africans who participated in the registration process. Mamabolo highlighted that young people between the ages of 16 and 29 accounted for 78.31% of new voters, with young women forming the majority. The Commission plans to continue its focus on increasing youth registration.
With the latest registrations, South Africa’s voters’ roll has expanded to approximately 26.8 million, an increase from 26.3 million before the registration weekend.
Mamabolo also encouraged frail-care facilities and other institutions, as well as home-confined individuals, to contact the Electoral Commission for voter registration arrangements.
He commended the participation levels in the voter registration process as a testament to South Africans’ commitment to electoral democracy and assured that the Commission would continue to facilitate registration opportunities.
The Voter Management Device (VMD) played a crucial role in the swift processing of voter registration applications, a significant improvement over the previous months-long processing time. The VMD handled 834,474 live transactions, with an additional 1,872,352 transactions captured and processed later.
The online registrations portal, introduced in July 2021, also saw considerable use, with more than 196,000 transactions recorded. Mamabolo addressed some issues with online registrations that returned a “pending” message, advising users to follow system prompts carefully when uploading ID images.
The portal will remain open for ongoing registration and updates, available at https://registertovote.elections.org.za/voter-online-registration/overview.
A second voter registration weekend is expected to be announced soon, as part of continued efforts to ensure widespread voter participation in the upcoming elections.