Polokwane - With just a few hours left before the last day of voter registration weekend closes, people in Limpopo are turning out in large numbers to register for the upcoming local government elections.
Today is the last day of the voter registration weekend drive and all voting stations across the country will close at 5pm.
Shortly after voting stations opened in Limpopo on Saturday, a total of 4 373 people visited various voting stations to register, 689 to re-register and a further 14 910 to check the correctness of their details on the voters' roll.
This brought the total number of eligible voters who visited various voting stations across the province to more than 19 865.
On Saturday, a voting station was not opened in Dikgomong village in Avon as residents were angered by the demarcation of their ward.
However, spokesperson of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) in the province, Motsiri Ramafalo, said all the 2 784 voting stations were open on Sunday.
"We are appealing to all those who have not yet taken advantage of the voter registration to quickly rush to their nearest voting stations to register, re-register as well as verify their details before we close," he said.
Provincial electoral officer, Nkaro Mateta, said on the first day of the voter registration, they were able to register more than15 000 voters.
The province is targeting to register 100 000 eligible voters during their voter registration drive, with the majority of voters being young people.
"The participating figure is quite promising as about 3 000 people visited our voting stations to re-register ... we believe that there are still several more others who are affected by the demarcation of wards who still need to go and re-register because people will only be able to voter where they live," she said.
On Sunday, Mateta visited Moutse village to assess the registration processes. "I am at the village and the registration is going well, but the turnout is very low.
"It seems to me that a lot of people were not aware of the voter registration weekend because they told me that they do not have access to radio as there is no electricity at their village.
"I believe that if we've come to the village to distribute pamphlets, the registration turnout would have been much better. We thought that sending the voter registration message through the radio would reach all the people, but we were wrong," she said.
Mateta said the situation in the village, which in the recent past was marred by violent protests over the demarcation of their area into Limpopo, was calm, adding that the police were closely monitoring the situation.
