Johnathan Paoli
President Cyril Ramaphosa will announce the date of elections within fifteen days from the State of the Nation address spokesperson for the Presidency Vincent Magwenya said, adding that “following the president’s address, there had to be a period of 90 days to allow for an appropriate determination of the best date for voting.
“There is no crisis so far as the election date is concerned. There is no delay because there never was an expectation of a particular time that he would make the announcement,” Magwenya said.
Earlier this year, the President said he was consulting the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) on the elections which must be held within 90 days from May this year.
EFF leader Julius Malema previously called on the president to immediately announce the date for the 2024 national and provincial elections.
Malema said that there was no logical reason or excuse to prolong the election date announcement any longer.
“Ramaphosa must accept that his term, that has been defined by failure, has come to an end and give the nation an election date so it can prepare itself for a future that does not include him,” Malema said.
This comes on the heels of the second and final voter registration drive this past weekend, with the IEC confirming that 27.4 million South African citizens have thus far been registered, with a growth of 1.2%.
The commission said that it had noted an increase in the representation of young people on the voters’ roll compared to previous elections, with 48% of young people between the ages of 20 and 29 have registered to vote for this year’s election, indicating an improvement in the interest of young voters to participate in the polls.
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