According to a new survey taken by the South African Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), 81% of more than 700,000 new people added to the voter database ahead of the National and Provincial elections scheduled for later this year, are young people under the age of 30.
Sy Mamabolo, the current Chief Executive Officer of the Commission, announced while informing pressmen in the country’s capital of Cape Town, on the recent voter’s registration weekend.
The large number of voters registered came as a result of targeted persuasion from the government and several political parties, which apparently motivated citizens to troop out en mass to either register for the first time, or simply make certain verifications concerning any new information on voting.
Speaking on the turnout, Mamabolo said: “The Electoral Commission is pleased to report that over 700,000 new voters registered during the final registration weekend, bringing the total number of registered voters on the voters’ roll to 26,727,921.
“Most encouragingly, of the 703,794 new registrations, over 81% (574,899) are under 30 years old. This means that the youth has heeded the call to register,” he said.
The new figures, when combined with the registrations that took place during the March 2018 registration weekend, brings the total number of voters added to the voters’ roll at 1.1 million.
A further breakdown of the IEC’s report shows that 52% of the new voters are women, while 48% are men.
On the age spectrum, 49.2% are aged between 20 and 29, while 29.6% was recorded for voters within the age range of 18 and 19, and finally 5.9% for voters with ages between 16 and 17, according to the Commission.
Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape each recorded the highest number of voters registered over the weekend with 23.8%, 20.7% and 12.6%, respectively. While North Western, Free State and Northern Cape recorded the lowest turnouts with 6.3%, 5.47% and 2.34%, respectively.
Mamabolo further expressed the Commission’s satisfaction with the voter turnout, stating it had been the highest so far, showing that South Africans are enthusiastic about the elections.
“Based on latest voting age population estimates from Statistics South Africa, the current voters’ roll reflects a total registration by 74.5% of the eligible population.”
“The Electoral Commission is pleased with the overall registration level which remains high by international standards for countries with a voluntary registration system. However, the Commission remains concerned that approximately nine million eligible voters are still not registered, of which six million are under 30 years old.”
