The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) has announced the dates for the second and final voter registration weekend ahead of the 2024 National and Provincial Elections.
The country’s 23,296 voting stations will open from 8am to 5pm on Saturday, February 3 and Sunday, February 4 next year.
This second and final voter registration weekend will allow new voters to register and existing voters to inspect and if necessary update their registration details.
At the first registration weekend held last month, the voters’ roll was confirmed to have 26.8 million voters with 568,374 of those registering for the first time during that weekend.
The IEC said it was hopeful that the second registration weekend will build on and surpass the turn out recorded in November.
Citizens aged 16 years and older can register to vote. All they need are a South African identity document (ID), either a green barcoded ID book, smartcard ID or a valid temporary ID certificate.
When registering, voters will need to provide their address or a description of where they live to allow the IEC to place them on the correct segment of the voters’ roll. However, proof of an address is not a requirement to register as a voter.
Similarly, South Africans living abroad will have an opportunity to register at South Africa’s 120 high commissions, embassies and consulates on January 26, 27 and 28 next year.
For the first time, South Africans abroad may now register as voters using the online self-registration portal by capturing their details and uploading a scanned image of their identity document.
In addition, voter registration will also be conducted in correctional centres around the country to allow inmates to exercise their right to vote.
The registration of inmates in the correctional centres will take place between January 30 and February 1.
Family members of those who are incarcerated in correctional facilities have been requested to deliver the identity documents of inmates to them ahead of this registration drive.
The IEC’s contact centre continues to be operational to assist citizens with queries and information about the registration process and information related to location of voting station. The contact centre, which can be reached on 0800 11 8000, operates from 8am to 5pm weekdays.
The online voter registration portal remains available until the date of proclamation of the elections for first-time voters to register and for those who are already registered to update their registration details.
Registered voters can visit the Electoral Commission website www.elections.org.za to check their current registration details and voting station location.
They can also SMS their ID number to 32810 to receive an SMS containing the address of their voting station (charged at R1).
kailene.pillay@inl.co.za
IOL