The Electoral Commission is pleased to report that over 3 million South African voters visited their voting stations over the past weekend to register for the first time, to re-register and to update their registration details.

This activity is more than double that recorded during the first registration weekend for the previous Municipal Elections in 2011 and a 23 percent increase over registration activity during the first registration weekend in the 2014 National and Provincial Elections.

The Electoral Commission expressed it’s deep gratitude to all voters who came out in the millions to; visit voting stations and believes the results show without doubt that South Africans remain highly committed to democracy and participation in elections at all levels. “This bodes extremely well for the upcoming 2016 Municipal Elections and for the future.”

Of the 3 097 194 voters who visited voting stations this weekend:

• 692 730 were new registrations
• 1 086 958 were re-registrations in different voting districts; and
• 1 317 506 visited to confirm and update their registration in the same voting district

Of the new registrations, 544 552 (78.6 percent) were under 30 years old. This means that there has been a significant response by young persons to the call to register. The Commission is grateful for this response.

Almost 54 percent of the new registrations were women. This trend  applies to all provinces except the Northern Cape where there is almost a 50/50 split between men and women in respect of new registrations.

Kwazulu-Natal (166 112 or 24 percent) and Gauteng (156 331 or 22.5 percent) together accounted for almost half of all new registrations.

In terms of overall provincial activity, Kwazulu-Natal had the highest overall registration activity with 864 295 interactions recorded (approximately 28 percent of the national total) followed by Gauteng (526 580) and the Eastern Cape (519 674) which each contributed 17 percent of the total activity.

The Electoral Commission was pleased with the response to the call for registered voters to use the opportunity to update their address details at their voting station. More than 1.3 million registered voters used the weekend to confirm their registration and update their details.

The Electoral Commission urges all eligible voters who have still not registered to ensure they do not miss the final registration weekend which will take place on 9 and 10 April 2016 when all voting stations will again be open from 8am to 5pm.

This will be the last opportunity for voters to register and update their registration particulars at their voting station. Registration is on-going at the local IEC office during office hours Monday to Friday until the voters’ roll for the 2016 Municipal Elections closes on the day the elections are proclaimed.

The Electoral Commission  thanked all stakeholders including political parties, the media, government departments, the security services, civil society and community leaders for their support and cooperation in the successful the weekend’s registration.