APA-Pretoria (South Africa) Nearly three million South Africans registered to vote at the weekend, according to the country’s Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), which also revealed that the total number of registered voters now stood at more than 26.8 million.
IEC chief elections officer Sy Mamabolo told journalists on Monday that some 2.9 million South Africans registered to vote in next year’s national and provincial elections during the weekend of November 18-19.
“The majority of these voters – 2.7 million – visited voting stations to register as well as update their details. A total of 196,511 voters used the online portal to do the same during the exercise,” Mamabolo said.
He added: “The total registration activity over the two days was 2,904,037 voters. Eligible citizens registering for the first time were 568,374 voters. This accounted for 19.57% percent of total registration activity.”
South Africa’s voters’ roll now has some 26.8 million registered voters — up from 26.3 million before the weekend, he said.
Voters who re-registered in the same voting districts numbered 1.4 million, and those who re-registered in different voting districts were 929,564, the chief electoral officer said.
Mamabolo said young people aged between 16 and 29 years accounted for 78.31% of new voters — with young women dominating that count.
“The electoral commission appreciates and thanks all South Africans who heeded the call to register for the 2024 National and Provincial Elections,” he said.
NM/jn/APA