Political parties were on Wednesday challenged to field more female candidates as councillors for the upcoming municipal elections by chief electoral officer Pansy Tlakula.
”The challenge is for political parties to field more women as councillors because we had about 60% of all voter registrations this weekend being women,” Tlakula said at a briefing on the outcome of the registration drive.
The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) said it is satisfied with the turnout at the weekend. Registration activity was highest in the Eastern Cape with 212 761 registrations, followed by KwaZulu-Natal’s 151 122 and Gauteng at 119 746.
Of the 827 616 voters who went to voting stations nationwide, 393 267 were young people aged between 18 and 35, said Tlakula.
A total of 291 470 people registered for the first time, 89 395 registered in the same voting district and 446 742 registered in a new voting district.
The IEC advised that only those who had moved to a new voting district or those whose voting district had been affected by redelimitation (the change in ward boundaries) needed to register.
”Continuous voter registration is at present taking place at the offices of the municipal electoral officers countrywide, from Monday to Friday during office hours,” Tlakula said.
She said people who did not make use of the opportunity to register at their voting stations should do so at the offices.
Registration will continue until a date for the start of the municipal elections is announced in the Government Gazette.
There had been 20 674 926 people on the voters’ roll for the 2004 national and provincial elections.
Following the weekend registrations, by-election registrations and targeted registration in July, the number has grown to 20 717 895 said Tlakula, after the figure was adjusted to exclude 618 674 people who had since died. — Sapa