Views on voting and FAQs answered
Springs residents have different opinions about the upcoming election.
With only a few days to go before South Africans head to the polls, the Springs Advertiser asked a few locals if they are going to vote and what tangible issues they want their votes to translate into.
While some are looking forward to participating in the democratic process, others said they simply no longer care about voting.
Those who have lost their interest and appetite to participate in the elections cited these as some of the reasons – the high unemployment rate (32.9 in Quarter 1), poverty, the increasing cost of living, corruption that continues unchecked and a lack of youth representation in upper echelons of government.
What you need to know before May 29
Where am I registered?
The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) calls on registered voters to check their voting station ahead of election day. This is important because you can only vote where you are registered.
Where can you check your registration status?
The available channels to assist voters with checking their registration details or voting station are: you can SMS your ID number to 32810, use voting station finder application which can be found on the IEC website or by phoning contact centre on 0800 11 8000, or by using the IEC app which is downloadable on the app store or the google version.
Voters will receive three ballot papers
Due to the Electoral Amendment Act 1 of 2023, instead of the usual two ballots that voters received in the past elections, each voter at the voting station where they are registered will receive three ballot papers.
Here’s how the new voting system will work:
Ballot 1: Known as the national compensatory, this ballot paper will be used to vote for a political party to represent you in the National Assembly. It’s exclusively contested by 52 political parties and will be represented by the colour blue.
Ballot 2: This is the regional ballot; a new ballot to vote for political parties or independent candidates contesting in that region (province) for elections to the National Assembly. It bears the colour orange.
Ballot 3: This is the provincial ballot, which will be represented by the colour pink, and will be used to vote for political parties or independent candidates contesting elections of the provincial legislature in that province.
Special votes
The commission confirmed that voting in the special voting outside of the country or abroad was due to take place on May 17 and 18. Special voting locally will take place on May 27 and 28 and polling stations will open at 09:00 and close at 17:00.
As of April, just over 43 million South Africans were eligible to vote. However, just over 27 million voters are registered to vote in the upcoming general elections.
