ELECTIONS 2024 LIVE UPDATES: A second day of voting will not happen despite glitches, long queues

D-Day is finally here! It is 29 May, election day, when South Africans have a say on which political party they wish to decide the country’s fate.

This is said to be the most hotly contested elections, also historic as it marks the 30th year of electoral democracy.

Elections statistics

According to data from the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC), a total of 27.753,059 South Africans registered to vote, with a gender distribution of 44.76% men and 55.24% women.

The country hosts 1,792 registered political parties vying for the vote of these 27 million South Africans.

Gauteng is the country’s most significant voting province, with 6.5 million registered voters, closely followed by KwaZulu-Natal with 5.7 million.

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The Eastern Cape follows with 3.4 million voters, Western Cape with 3.3 million, Limpopo with 2.7 million, Mpumalanga with 2 million, North West with 1.7 million, Free State with 1.4 million, and Northern Cape with 657,000.

Special voters took to the polls on Monday and Tuesday, but not without glitches.

Incidents

This is apart from the taxi protests in the Eastern Cape that led to the closure of some voting stations. The IEC is working with the Natjoints to ensure citizens in the province can vote in a safe environment.

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Two people were also arrested on Tuesday for allegedly tampering with ballot boxes at two voting stations in Mpumalanga.

IEC officials were allegedly accosted by a group of people at voting stations in the Steve Tshwete and Chief Albert Luthuli municipalities.

In KwaZulu-Natal, two police officers were removed from election deployment and face disciplinary action. This after video footage emerged of them at a voting station, with one wearing party regalia, police revealed Tuesday.

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The IEC said that it would increase security visibility where ballot boxes and other election materials are stored.

More police officers will also be deployed.