Staff Reporter
The Electoral Commission (IEC) said turnout for voter registration was stronger at the start of Sunday than it had been on Saturday, as the country’s two-day registration weekend ended ahead of the 4 November local government elections.
The commission said activity on the second day remained solid despite bad weather in some areas, with KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape recording the highest levels of registration activity, followed by Gauteng and Limpopo.
Most voters still chose to register in person, with the IEC saying more than 90% of applications over the weekend were handled at voting stations rather than through online channels.
IEC chief executive Sy Mamabolo said the online registration platform would continue operating after the weekend.
“Online registration remains available beyond the weekend as an additional modality of registration. The Electoral Commission will announce the outcome of the voter registration weekend on Monday,” Mamabolo said.
The registration drive saw 23,706 voting stations opened across the country from 8am to 5pm on both Saturday and Sunday. The IEC had urged voters to confirm that they were registered in the correct voting district, a key requirement in municipal elections.
Ahead of the registration weekend, Mamabolo said the voters’ roll stood at 28 million, compared with 27.7 million voters recorded during the 2024 national and provincial elections.
He said the roll continued to be updated monthly, including the removal of about 34,000 deceased voters each month.
The IEC said on Saturday that the campaign had opened positively, with more than 330,000 registration applications processed by midday on the first day, most of them through voter management devices at voting stations.
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