Pretoria - The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) on Wednesday published on its website a provincial analysis and thematic maps, which indicate the registration rate in every ward of the country’s 234 municipalities.
Following the 2011 Census, the electoral commission has, with the assistance of Statistics South Africa, made an analysis of the distribution of the estimated 31.4 million eligible voters per municipality and per ward.
It has compared this information with the number of voters currently registered in those wards.
One of the main findings indicates that only 10 percent of 18 and 19-year-olds in the country are currently registered as voters.
The highest percentage (15 percent) is in the Eastern Cape and the lowest (four percent) is in the Western Cape, while Gauteng has five percent in this age band registered as voters.
In the age band 20 - 29 years, some 52 percent of potential voters are currently registered to vote.
The highest percentage of 63 percent is again in the Eastern Cape, with the Western Cape with 43 percent and Gauteng with 42 percent at the lower end of the scale.
In the various age bands for persons 30 years and older, the percentage of registered voters increases dramatically and varies from 85 percent to 100 percent for those who are 80 years and older. In fact, in the latter age group, there are more registered voters than the census indicated.
Overall, the Eastern Cape and Free State have the highest rate of potential voters currently registered at 80.1 percent each, whilst the Western Cape has 70.4 percent and Mpumalanga has 70.3 percent. Gauteng with 69.5 percent trails the overall current national average of 73.8 percent of potential voters currently being registered.
Registration rates vary greatly amongst municipalities. There are a few small municipalities, with low population figures, where the indication is that most, if not all, potential voters are registered to vote. Statistical distortions can, however, occur more easily with lower rather than higher numbers.
The registration patterns per municipality vary from province to province but generally speaking, the percentage of registered voters in rural municipalities tends to be higher than is the case in urban and in particular most metropolitan municipalities.
Of particular interest is the tendency that the registration rates in different areas within many municipalities are significantly different.
While it remains the democratic choice of every citizen to participate or not in the electoral process, the information contained in these maps will inform the registration drives of the electoral Commission to increase the percentage of registered voters to at least 80 percent of the potential electorate in the next year.
The availability of detailed census data has enabled the IEC to provide detailed planning tools for all political parties as they plan their election campaigns for the elections in 2014.
It also informs the media and the public at large of the geographically based prevailing interest to participate in the electoral democracy as the country approach the 2014 general elections and the 20th anniversary of freedom and democracy. - SAnews.gov.za
