The focus falls this weekend on South Africa’s youth who appear — at least up to now — to have spurned the political process and have not yet registered on the voters’ roll so they can vote in next year’s national election.
Political parties are expected to focus on registering their supporters this weekend — November 8 and 9 — which has been declared voter registration weekend by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC). The IEC will run next year’s election.
The election can take place sometime between March and August of next year — but is widely expected to be held before the 10th anniversary of democracy on April 27.
As a result of the normal rate of deaths since the last election, the total number of voters on the roll has dropped from about 18,4-million to 17,9-million voters.
With the IEC having warned that only 1% of 18 and 19 year olds were on the roll, three groupings on Tuesday backed the campaign to get young people registered.
In a joint statement issued by Youth Commission spokesperson Monde Mkalipi, SA Police Service Superintendent Charmaine Muller and Home Affairs Department spokesperson Nkosana Sibuyi, they called on youth formations to mobilise young people to register at registration points set up by the IEC. These are at 17 000 voting stations around the country from 8am to 5pm.
“To be able to exercise their constitutional rights, all South Africans who are 18 years and above should have bar-coded IDs thus enabling them to vote in the forthcoming 2004 general elections.”
They urged all young people who are 16 or 17 at present to register to vote — with some of those becoming eligible to vote in the next election especially if it is held later next year.
The three groups noted that for all those who had already applied for the reissue of an ID or have lost an identity document, “the Department of Home Affairs will issue out temporary identity certificates (TICs) during this period to enable eligible South Africans to register to vote and to vote where you register”.
“In addition, those who have applied for the first time in the past two months and have not yet received their IDs are also eligible to apply for TICs.”
But there is a catch. These TICs would only be issued by Home Affairs — and only at those offices which are connected to the national computerised database, which will also be open from 8am to 5pm this weekend.
Asked how members of the public would be able to determine where these offices were, Sibuyi said a check should be done with the regional directors of Home Affairs in the various provinces. But he promised that there would be more information on this matter.
Meanwhile, the IEC suggested voters could check on the website www.elections.org.za to see if they are registered. In addition queries could be directed to the toll-free number 0800118000. This number was engaged when I-Net Bridge tried to ring it.
However, the IEC said this would be checked and advised that voters who had moved within an area — from one street to another — should double check their registration at their local voting station. – I-Net Bridge