IEC to soon embark on voter registration campaign

The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) says it will soon embark on a national voter registration campaign to encourage participation in the Local Government Elections.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced that this year’s election will be held on the 27th of October.

The polls will see the introduction of the new management voting devices which will replace the old Zip-Zip scanners.

The system is dubbed a game-changer within the commission’s registration framework. In the 2019 national elections, there were allegations of voters who were able to cast more than one vote at the polls. Officials say the new online system will ensure that such incidents do not occur.

It will allow them to capture voters’ addresses and verify them against their respective wards.

“It’s an important development within our registration framework. The voter management devices will do a number of business processes in one transaction, Firstly, we will scan the ID and take the names of the voter. We will also capture the address at the point of interaction. On election day, the voter management device will be operating online to check if the person has voted elsewhere, and it will minimise the allegations of people having voted twice in the election. It’s an innovation that will increase the integrity of the process,” says  CEO of the IEC, Sy Mamabolo.

The IEC’s Deputy Chief Electoral Officer, Mawethu Mosery, says all necessary preparations are being made to ensure that COVID-19 health protocols are adhered to.

“It is possible to embark on the campaign of voter registration with financial constraints. We will have a weekend – a full two days of registrations – but prior to that weekend, we will be sharing with you some of the new developments such as a digital platform due to be launched soon. We are also encouraging the visiting of our offices with all COVID-19 protocols in place for purposes of registration.”

IEC will soon embark on national voter registration: