Pretoria - Preliminary reports estimate that approximately 1.1 million people visited voter registration stations on the first day of the Independent Electoral Commission’s registration drive on Saturday.
The IEC set aside 9 and 10 November as voter registration days ahead of next year’s general elections. A total of 22 263 stations across the country opened at 8am this morning and will close at 5pm.
Early trends were that approximately 40% were new registrations, 49% were applicant changing registration details from one voting district to another and 11% were applicant re-registering in the same voting district, according to the IEC on Sunday.
It said initial trends pointed to a relatively high turnout by young people with up to 75% of new registrations being people under 30 years of age.
The largest numbers of visits to registration stations recorded by last night were in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and Western Cape.
The commission said after voting stations close at 5pm later today, officials would continue to upload data from each voting station to update the voters’ roll. – SAnews.gov.za
