The Independent Electoral Commission, IEC, said it is pleased with the turnout of the first day of voter registration weekend.
The IEC said this is testament that there is a huge interest in voter registration.
“We confirm that in the initial hours of this morning, 90% of the voting stations were already opened, with the residual opening and confirming operation by 08:30.
In the initial hours of today, 326 000 voters had visited their voting stations by 11:30 and had their applications processed using voter management devices,” said the IEC Deputy Chief Electoral Officer, Masego Sheburi.
According to the IEC, the 326 000 voters exclude the 26 000 who have registered from anywhere across the world on the online portal.
Sheburi highlighted that the majority of the 68 718 electoral officers, that had been trained and assigned to voting stations, did report for duty.
He, however, explained that in isolated cases, they had to replace persons at short notice, but that didn’t tamper with the operations.
Sheburi urged the voters to continue to seize the moment, and accredited the efficiency witnessed today to the innovative technology used in the 2021 elections.
“Our voter management devices have captured thousands of registration details, even in areas challenged by connectivity issues.
Those are captured on the device and once you establish connectivity to the GSM those records will be transmitted,” explained Sheburi.
Meanwhile, the General Manager of Electoral Matters at the IEC, Granville Abrahams, has sought to allay security concerns about the online voter registration portal.
“It involves two factor authentication, one of it being OTP that is sent to a cellphone number of the person who made the application.
It also requires that the ID of the person applying must be uploaded and through barcode scanning we read in that information from the card, and if not possible, we have at the back hand physical exception clearing,” said Abrahams.
The commission noted that there were disruptions at some of its stations and called on the voters to be allowed to exercise their constitutional rights.
It is regrettable that in certain communities there’s still a practice of linking genuine concerns by communities to the electoral process, in a way that disrupts and interferes with the rights of other citizens who may be inclined to go update their registration details or to register,” add Shiburi.
He said they’re working with community leaders and law enforcement authorities to ensure that even in “those isolated instances, people who want to register are still able to do so without any hindrance.”
