The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has set aside the weekend of November 8 and 9 for voters to register for the 2004 elections.
IEC chairperson Dr Brigalia Bam, addressing reporters in Johannesburg on Thursday, said that in order to vote a person’s name must appear on the voters’ roll, and he or she must have a green identity book with a bar code.
Voters who had not previously registered, or who had changed their address since the last election, should register. Voters could also take advantage of the registration weekend to make sure their details on the roll were correct.
Bam said the date of the election had not yet been set. President Thabo Mbeki would fix the date in consultation with the IEC. However, the commission was preparing for an April election.
The last possible date for the election was September 2 2004.
Bam said the number of polling stations had been increased to 17 000 from the 14 998 that operated in the municipal elections of 2000. This was to accommodate new settlements and housing developments, and also to shorten the distance that rural voters, especially the elderly, had to walk.
Identity documents and photographs for IDs could now be obtained free of charge, to assist the poor.
The IEC was faced with the challenge of getting young voters interested, Bam said. Fewer young people had voted in the 1999 general election than the commission had expected.
IEC chief executive Pansy Tlakula said only 1% of those aged 18 to 19 were on the roll. The IEC was working with the Youth Commission ”to get young people to take their civic responsibility seriously”.
In previous elections about 47% to 48% of 18- and 19-year-olds were registered, less than other age groups but about the international average.
Tlakula said there were 18,1-million voters on the roll in 1999, rising to 18,4-million in 2000. The number had since fallen to its present 17,9-million.
Most of those removed from the roll had died. The number of new names added was less than the number removed, and the IEC wanted to add as many new names as possible.
An IEC official said some people asked to be removed from the roll, usually for religious reasons. Most other removals were foreigners who had fraudulently obtained South African identity documents.
Tlakula said there were 132 political parties registered with the commission. Of these, 70 were national parties and 62 were municipal. Of these 132 parties, only 14 were currently represented in Parliament.
Not all registered parties actually contest elections. In the 1999 election, for example, only 16 parties were on the ballot paper.
Bam said the electoral system of proportional representation would be used in 2004, as in 1994 and 1999.
Asked if prisoners would be allowed to vote, Bam said there was a bill before Parliament that would restrict the vote to prisoners sentenced to one year or less, but the matter was not yet finalised. — Sapa