Voter registration weekend in January

THE ELECTORAL Commission of South Africa has announced that the second and final voter registration weekend for the 2019 national and provincial elections will be held on January 26 and 27.

Spokesperson for the Electoral Commission, Kate Bapela, said yesterday that the country’s 22 932 voting stations would be open from 8am to 5pm on Saturday, January 26 and Sunday, January 27 2019 to allow new voters to register and existing voters to update and to check their registration details.

There are currently 26.1 million registered voters on the national common voters roll and it is hoped that at least one million voters will be added to the voters roll ahead of the 2019 elections.

The Electoral Commission has urged voters who are already registered to use the opportunity to visit their voting station to check their registration and to confirm and update their address details.

This forms part of the ongoing drive to ensure the voters roll is ready for the elections in line with the 2016 order of the Constitutional Court.

Voters should take a copy of their bar-coded ID book, smart card ID or temporary ID certificate when they go to register in the voting district in which they ordinarily reside.

Registered voters can visit the Electoral Commission website (www.elections.org.za) to check their current registration details and voting station location. They can also SMS their ID number to 32810 to receive an SMS containing the address of their voting station (charged at R1). An online facility (www.elections.org.za/MyIEC) is also available for registered voters with access to the internet to update and review their address online.

Unregistered voters can insert their address in the Voting Station Finder application on the website (http://maps.elections.org.za/vsfinder/) to find their correct voting station or call the contact centre.

– Patsy Beangstrom