POLITICS

25.3m South Africans registered to vote - IEC

Commission says final registration weekend saw 1 259 560 new voters registering, a quarter of whom were in Gauteng

Outcome of final registration weekend

A record 25.3 million South Africans are registered and ready to vote in the 7 May 2014 national and provincial elections following a highly successful final registration weekend which saw 1 259 560 new voters registering.

The new registrations lifted the overall registration level from 76.9 percent prior to the weekend to 80.5 percent of all eligible voters today.

Combined with the 1.1 million new voters who registered for the first time in November, some 2.3 million new voters will have been added onto voters' roll for the first time since 8 November 2013. This is about 17 percent higher than the target the Electoral Commission had set of 2 million.

Encouragingly, 79.89 percent of all new registrations this weekend - or 1 006 260 - are voters under the age of 30. This included:

691 002 voters aged 20 - 29
255 398 voters aged 18 and 19
and 59 860 voters aged 16 and 17

Along with new registration, a further 1.48 million registered voters also used the weekend opportunity to change their new voting station. And 183 377 people re-registered at the same voting station.

In total, just short of 3 million people visited our 22 263 voting stations this weekend. That is 16 percent higher than the 2.5 million who visited voting stations in November.

In terms of new registrations, the following are the provincial totals:

Eastern Cape: 130 072 new voters (10.33 percent)
Free State: 70 161 new voters (5.57 percent)
Gauteng: 339 728 new voters (26.97 percent)
KwaZulu-Natal: 298 652 new voters (23.71 percent)
Limpopo: 86 835 new voters (6.89 percent)
Mpumalanga: 97 732 new voters (7.76 percent)
North West: 74 389 new voters (5.91 percent)
Northern Cape: 25 332 new voters (2.01 percent)
Western Cape: 136 659 new voters (10.85 percent)

In line with population trends, women comprised 51.50 percent of new registrations and men 48.50 percent. 

The overall registration level against estimated eligible population for the provinces is as follows:

Eastern Cape: 85.3 percent
Free State: 85.8 percent
Gauteng: 77.0 percent
KwaZulu-Natal: 83.6 percent
Limpopo: 81.0 percent
Mpumalanga: 77.3 percent
North West: 78.5 percent
Northern Cape: 84.3 percent
Western Cape: 77.8 percent

Registration has also been underway for overseas voters at South African diplomatic missions abroad. As of yesterday we had received 3 521 applications for registration. According to figures provided by the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) we anticipate approximately 700 more applications are being couriered to us for capturing.

Prisoner registration was conducted at correctional service facilities throughout South Africa on Thursday and Friday last week. This process resulted in 9 949 applications for registration by prisoners.

Registration remains open for eligible voters until 5pm on the day of proclamation which is expected later this month. Eligible voters can still register at their local IEC office until that day after which the voters' roll closes. Contact details for IEC offices are available on www.elections.org.za or call 0800 11 8000.

Voters who registered this weekend can check their new registration details from Monday next week by SMSing their ID number to 32810.

For info graphics and maps, please click on the links below:

Final registration statistics

Statement issued by Kate Bapela, Electoral Commission, February 11 2014

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