THE Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) is reminding South Africans that Friday (August 7) is the final day to register online if they intend to vote in the 2026 Local Government Elections. This announcement follows the IEC’s second and final voter registration weekend on August 1 and 2.

Also read: KZN leads the way in voters registration

The commission stressed that voters must be registered in the specific voting district where they live. In local government elections, there is no provision to vote outside of the voting station of registration

Voter registration update

During the August 1 and 2 registration weekend, KwaZulu-Natal, yet again, recorded the most voter registration activity, with 427 592 transactions. Of these, 71 932 individuals were registering to vote for the first time. In the Durban South area, Ward 64 leads with the highest number of registered voters, with 20 876, followed by Ward 68 with 18 953 registered voters and then Ward 66 with 17 823 registered voters.

Across the country, nearly 1.8 million citizens engaged with the IEC during this final registration weekend. This involved either visiting one of the 23 699 registration stations or using the online portal. Out of the 1.79 million total transactions, 291 806 were new registrations. More than 1.5 million people who were already registered checked or updated their details to confirm they were correctly listed in their residential wards.

Youth stepping up

Young voters, aged between 16 and 29, were notably active during the final voters’ registration weekend, making up 485 757 registration transactions, which is 26% of the national total. Encouragingly, almost half (46%) of all the new voters were under the age of 29. KZN also saw the highest youth engagement, with 137 046 young people registering.

Considering both the June and August national registration weekends, a total of 754 332 new voters have been added to the voter roll in preparation for the 2026 Local Government Elections. Since the 2024 General Elections, over 2.1 million new voters have been added.

The IEC is urging anyone who has not registered or has recently moved, to use the online portal before the August 7 deadline. With the registration weekends now concluded, the IEC will shift its focus to the subsequent stages of preparing for Election Day.

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