Early figures show 'encouraging' voter turnout

Preliminary voter turnout figures began trickling through on Wednesday afternoon, with an estimated 16% of registered voters having turned out to cast their ballot by 3pm across the country.

But the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) warned that this was merely a preliminary reflection of voter turnout, a very early indicator of activity at polling stations.

“There are no updated figures as yet, these figures are not a true reflection of voter turnout” said Courtney Sampson, the IEC’s chief electoral officer in the Western Cape.

He said that the IEC had asked its officials to concentrate on ensuring smooth processes, rather than collating statistics.

But according to these very early figures the province with the highest turnout recorded thus far was the Northern Cape, with around 40% of registered voters having made their mark.

This was followed by 30% in North West and 27% in KwaZulu-Natal.

Gauteng had recorded a preliminary turnout of 3,2%.

South Africa has 23,6-million voters registered for this election.

In the Western Cape, the city of Cape Town had recorded a 12% turnout by 3pm, while the municipality with the largest turn out in the province was Hessequa municipality, at 54%. Hessequa incorporates Heidelberg and Riversdale.

Nkosikhulule Nyembezi, advocacy programme manager for Black Sash—a member of the Election Monitoring Network—said that these indicative numbers were encouraging, as some municipalities had already seen half or close to half of registered voters cast their ballot by 3pm.