IEC upbeat as people turn out in tens of thousands
The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) said yesterday it was happy that 326,000 people turned out to register for the 2024 elections on the first day of voter registration, saying it set a “good tone” for the registration drive.
The historic elections will have independent candidates contesting for seats for the first time.
Addressing the media in Centurion on the first day of the voter registration weekend, deputy IEC CEO Masego Sheburi said that by midday yesterday more than 326,000 people had registered at the country’s 23,296 voting stations, where 68,718 officers reported for duty.
“In the initial hours of this two-day registration weekend 326,000 voters had visited their voting stations and had their applications processed using the voter management devices,” Sheburi said.
“This sets a good tone for the two days of voter registration. The turnout thus far is testament to the strength of our democracy, and we urge every South African to continue to seize the moment.”
The commission said it was aware of isolated incidences where voting stations were not opened due to service delivery protests.
“It is regrettable that in certain communities there is still the practice of linking genuine concerns by communities to the electoral process in a way that disrupts and interferes with the rights of other citizens who may be inclined to go and update their registration details or to register.”
Sheburi said the commission was working with community leaders to ensure that people who wanted to register were able to do so without hindrance.
By midday yesterday, 26,000 voters had registered on the online portal.
“We are on course to surpass the highest registration activity ever recorded on a single day. The highest activity was yesterday [Friday] at 50,000 recorded on a single day,” Sheburi said.
The impressive numbers could be attributed to the voter management devices introduced
during the 2021 elections, he said.
The department of home affairs will remain open at 300 of its offices to facilitate the issuing of new or replacement of IDs.
“The commission encourages all eligible voters to utilise the remainder of the registration weekend to participate in shaping the future of their country and nation whether by registering online or at a voter registration,” Sheburi said.
On the rights of homeless people to vote, he said that as long as a person was a South African citizen over the age of 18 and had an ID, they could register.
The IEC’s Granville Abrahams said the commission was in the process of launching a platform for those living abroad.
“Unfortunately, those who are abroad cannot use the same system that we have inside the country because the requirement for them is different. In addition to their ID, they are also required to have a valid passport and on the online platform we are providing for both those documents to be uploaded.
“An address abroad is not as important as it is inside South Africa because there’s one voting district in the country where they are, so the address won’t be significant.”
Abrahams said the platform would be loaded on the IEC website as soon as it was ready. “We are in the final phases of testing before we launch it.”
President Cyril Ramaphosa will proclaim the election date once he has concluded consultations with the commission.