Most number of voters since ’94 – IEC

The Electoral Commission of South Africa says over 27.79 million voters – the highest since the dawn of democracy in South Africa – are eligible to vote in the 2024 elections.

According to the commission, the voters’ roll will be certified by the chief electoral officer today.

On Monday, chief electoral officer Sy Mamabolo said the voters’ roll will be published by making it available at the commission’s head office, each of the nine provincial offices and at each municipal office of the commission.

“The certification follows the finalisation of objections by the commission on the provisional voters’ roll that was published for inspection on 26 February, 2024. Certification signals confirmation of those citizens eligible to vote,” he said.

Mamabolo said the electronic copies of the voters’ roll, which contain the redacted identity numbers of voters, in compliance with the Protection of Personal Information Act, will be provided to all political parties and independent candidates qualified to contest the elections.

“Since the voters’ roll was compiled for the first time ahead of the 1999 elections, it has shown steady growth of over 35% and contains the highest number of registered voters, recording an increase of 9.6 million voters since 1999.

“Gauteng remains the biggest voting block, followed by KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape, respectively.

“The highlight is the increase in the rate of representation by persons in the age cohort 18-39 years. This age band accounts for 42% [or 11.7 million] voters on the voters’ roll,” he said.

Mamabolo said of the 27.79 million voters, 15 million are female, representing over 55%.

“The introduction of the online self-service voter registration modality has contributed to the increased rate of registration by younger voters as well as by citizens who are resident outside of the republic,” he said.

Mamabolo said compliance verification of the candidate nomination submissions is under way.

“In terms of the law, a party submission must contain a list of candidates accompanied by payment of the applicable deposit for it to be compliant. In respect of unrepresented parties, the submission must in addition be accompanied by proof that the requisite number of signatures have been uploaded on the nomination portal,” he said.

According to Mamabolo, the requirements for independent candidates are that a prescribed nomination form be submitted by the cut-off time, accompanied by the prescribed form confirming the candidate has submitted the requisite number of signatures and payment of the deposit.

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