Pretoria - The voters’ roll has increased by 11.3 percent since the previous Local Government Elections in 2011, says the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC).
This comes as IEC Chief Electoral Officer Mosotho Moepya has just certified the voters’ roll for the 2016 Municipal Elections, paving the way for a record 26 333 3535 voters to cast their ballots on 3 August.
Also, the Commission says the voters’ roll is also 943 203 more, which is a 3.7 percent increase, than were on the voters’ roll for the 2014 National and Provincial Elections.
“The voters’ roll contains approximately 77 percent of all eligible citizens of voting age based on population estimates provided by Statistics South Africa.
“In line with population trends and previous elections, approximately 55 percent of the voters, which is 14.47 million, are women compared to 45 percent men, who makes 11.87 million,” said the Commission.
According to the Commission, Gauteng has the highest number of voters with 6.2 million certified voters followed by KwaZulu-Natal with 5.4 million, the Eastern Cape with 3.3 million and the Western Cape with 3 million.
The Commission said approximately 69 percent of all voters are located in these four provinces.
The voters’ roll has, according to the Commission, increased by 42.5 percent in the number of voters since the first Municipal Elections using a voters’ roll in 2000.
“A comparison of the voters’ rolls over the past four Municipal Elections shows that the highest growth in voters has occurred in the Western Cape, showing 56.8 percent increase since 2000.
“The Western Cape is followed by KwaZulu-Natal with a 54.6 percent increase. The lowest growth has occurred in the Free State where the voters’ roll has grown just 20 percent in the past 16 years.
“In terms of age, approximately 48 percent of all voters are aged under 40 years old, marking 12.7 million,” said the Commission. - SAnews.gov.za
