Millions of South African youths didn’t register to vote. IEC CEO Sy Mamabolo yesterday said they were concerned nine million eligible voters were not registered, six million of whom were under 30.
The IEC has said millions of young people have not registered to vote. But he said they still had time to register. “The IEC hopes young voters will use the short window of opportunity ahead of the announcement of an election date to register at local IEC offices.
“Once elections are proclaimed, the electoral roll will close,” he said. He said the commission will go to higher education campuses early next month to urge young people to vote.
He said over the past weekend’s registration drive, more than 700 000 new voters put their names on the roll. This means there are now 26 million registered voters.
“Most encouragingly, of the 703 794 new registrations, over 81% are under 30. “This means the youth have heeded the call to register.” He said since March, 1,1 million new names had been added to the voters’ roll.
The majority of new voters were women, at 52%. KZN scored 246 847 new voters, followed by Gauteng with 236 287 and Eastern Cape with 130 959
Source: Daily Sun
