Home Affairs offices open on voting day

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Pretoria - Voters have been reminded that the Department of Home Affairs offices will be open on Election Day to assist voters who need to collect their Identity Documents.

Voters will need their ID book to cast their vote.

The department confirmed that all their offices across the country will be open on Wednesday for extended hours between 7am in the morning and 9pm in the evening.

During the past month, Home Affairs has produced over 200 000 IDs.

Meanwhile, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has said it is confident more than 80 percent of those who have registered will make their way to the voting stations to cast their vote on Wednesday.

"We feel very confident this time around. We have never experienced such a high enthusiasm," IEC chairperson Dr Brigalia Bam said, briefing the media on Monday ahead of the 2009 General Elections.

Ms Bam said the number of first time voters and young people who have shown interest in this year's election has far exceeded that of previous elections.

Nearly 800 000 registered voters are between the age 18 and 19 while more than five million are between the age 20 and 29.

She said the enthusiasm shown by South Africans living abroad in voting at missions abroad last week was "incredible". There were at least 16 240 registered South Africans abroad, most of which were London.

"We can easily make that assumption because if we get anything less than 80 percent, it will be disappointing," Dr Bam said.

She said campaigning by political parties had been intense and that the IEC had no doubt this campaigning had motivated voters to go to the polls in their numbers.