IEC sends texts to registered voters with no address

Thursday, April 7, 2016

Pretoria - The Electoral Commission (IEC) has started sending text messages to registered voters for whom no address details are currently available on the voters’ roll.

This forms part of the commission's efforts to update and enhance the voters’ roll ahead of 2016 Municipal Elections.

South Africa will hold municipal elections on 3 August 2016.

According to records following the last registration weekend, there are approximately 6.92 million voters currently on the voters’ roll without any address details. This is down from approximately eight million ahead of the March registration weekend.

The text messages inform these voters that no address is currently available for them in the Electoral Commission’s records and urges them to visit their voting station this weekend to update their address details.

The SMS allows voters to “opt out” of receiving further SMS communications from the Electoral Commission.

The Electoral Commission was only able to source cell phone numbers for 5.3 million of the 6.92 million voters for whom it does not have addresses. Efforts to reach the remaining 1.6 million voters include radio adverts urging all voters to use this weekend to check their registration and address details at their voting station.

“The initiative follows the Constitutional Court ruling in November last year in the Tlokwe matter that a voter’s address or sufficient particularities of their place of residence were essential to ensure that the voter is registered in the correct voting district,” the commission said in a statement on Thursday.

Various facilities are available to voters to check their registration status and they have been enhanced to advise voters whether the Electoral Commission has sufficient address details for them. These include:

- online via the Voting Station Finder App at www.elections.org.za

- via USSD by dialing *120*432#

- SMSing their ID number to 32810 at a cost of R1

- through the Contact Centre on 0800 11 8000

Voting stations will open on Saturday 9 April and Sunday 10 April from 8am to 5pm. – SAnews.gov.za