According to the chief electoral officer (CEO), Mosotho Moepya, the IEC has increase its voting station network by 9.4 per cent, compared to the 2011 local government elections (20 859 in 2011 and 22 264 currently), in line with settlement development patterns across the nation.
“In collaboration with the Department of Home Affairs, the IEC tested the smart card identity for use on the scanners for both registration and voting purposes,” says Moepya.
“These tests were successful, and the card will be accepted as valid registration and voting tender.
“The IEC has also upgraded its website to a format that is form-friendly and, therefore, accessible from mobile phones, tablets and conventional desktops.
“Its outreach capacity has been strengthened across all our regional offices countrywide. Together with civil society organisations, the IEC has also established a national coordinating forum (NCF).”
Moepya says this will be instrumental in re-enforcing its ability to address three critical matter in this area of work, namely: the delivery of civic and voter education in general, but, in this instance, the delivery of such services by CSOs in particular; the coordination of efforts aimed at proactively addressing conflict management; and to encourage election observation, especially by domestic observers.
“Careful attention has been placed on the quality of electoral staff we are recruiting, their impartiality and the training they will be receiving,” adds Moepya.
“To this end, revised training content has been designed and packaged in modular format for easy assimilation over shorter, but regular, training periods.”
Further, the IEC has just concluded a Schools Democracy Week programme, which was the first initiative of this kind, undertaken in conjunction with the Department of Basic Education.
The South African voters’ roll remains a fundamental contributor to the credibility of the country’s elections.
“It is regularly updated against the national population register (at least once a month); it maintains audit trails of all voters since the first voters’ roll was compiled in 1998; it is readily available for inspection whenever an election is called and copies of the voters’ roll are provided to parties and candidates contesting elections,” Moepya says.
“Since the first voters’ roll was compiled, the IEC has increased the enrolment of voters by 21.3 per cent.
“This is a net increase after taking into account those voters who are on the rejected portion of the voters’ roll.”
Following the release of Census 2011 data by Statistics South Africa, in 2012, the IEC has established the potential registration gap, which stands at approximately 8.3-million, before taking into account the natural attrition of registered and eligible voters.
“This census data places our current registered voting age population at 73.6 per cent,” Moepya explains.
“In keeping with our trend of maintaining the voting age population in the 80 per cent region, it is clear that our registration efforts will be targeting 2 006 229 new, registered voters.
“This, we hope to achieve through the registration weekend, as determined for November 9 and 10, as well as other ongoing registration initiatives in this period.
“It is important to note that the greatest registration gap is in the age categories 18 to 19 and 20 to 29, with registration gaps of current registrations standing at 8.4 per cent and 49.4 per cent respectively.
“We take heart from the observation that many of these potential voters will be afforded the opportunity of a general registration weekend for the first time in November 2013.”
The IEC may be contacted via the following:
* The website at www.elections.org.za;
* Facebook at facebook.com/iecsouthafrica;
* Twitter at twitter.com/iecsouthafrica;
* toll-free from landlines at 0800 11 8000
To check registration details:
* SMS on 32810 (send ID number only);
* Am I registered? (on IEC website)
* Where do I register? (on IEC website).
