Young people and women dominated during voter registration weekend that took place on Saturday and Sunday.
The Independent Electoral Commission on Monday announced that just under 3 million people turned out to either register or verify their particulars and that majority of those were youth and women.
“Young persons in the age category 16-29 account for 445 000 or 78.31 of the new registrations. In other words, a substantial majority of the new voters who came for the first time onto the voters’ roll are young persons”, said Chief Electoral Officer Si Mamabolo during a media briefing on Monday.
Mamabolo said the IEC remains committed to getting as many young people as possible to participate in the elections.
“Therefore, the commission’s continued focus on young persons is producing a good yield. The commission will persist with efforts to improve the registration of youth”, he said.
“The well entrenched trend of there being more females on the voters’ roll continues. Of the new registrations 298 000 were females and that represents 52.5 percent”, said Mamabolo about the number of women who turned up.
While women and youth are a majority in South Africa, their participation in politics and the economy has been minimal.