The IEC has assured South Africans that rolling blackouts will not negatively affect the registration of voters at its voting stations across the country.
It says this is due in part to the use of Voter Management Devices, the primary technology in the registration process.
The voter registration process is the second and last ahead of the 2024 national elections, whose date President Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to announce soon.
The IEC Chief Electoral Officer Sy Mamabolo says, “The devices are designed to operate online via a secure private cellular data connection. However, all three applications have been coded to function fully without access to the network—what we call offline mode—if certain predetermined parameters are met. These include instances when there is insufficient connectivity with the data centre. The interplay between the online and offline modes of the devices will happen without an operator.”
IEC ready for the weekend’s voter registration:
Meanwhile, the IEC says it is hoping many young people will show up to register to vote this weekend. In the past week, South Africans living abroad, as well as prisoners, were afforded the opportunity to register.
The Electoral Commission’s Mawethu Mosery says, “Our message is directed at young people, and therefore we are hoping for a better response. We have seen that in the first registration, almost 500 000 young people came out as the first-time voters on our voters’ roll. We hope for the same during this weekend’
The Electoral Commission says it is crucial for each voter to check where they are registered. It says voters may check their registration status and their voting station by contacting its call centre on 0800 11 800. They can also SMS their identity number to 32810, log on www.elections.org. za or use the IEC Whatsapp Chatbot on 0600 88 0000.
