Update address to vote in elections

Staff Writer

THE Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has sent text messages to more than five million registered voters, urging them to update their addresses ahead of the local government elections.

This follows the Constitutional Court ruling in November last year in the Tlokwe matter that a voter’s address or sufficient particularities of their place of residence were essential to ensure the voter was registered in the correct voting district, said IEC spokesperson Kate Bapela.

President Jacob Zuma has announced elections will be held on August 3.

Portfolio committee on home affairs spokesperson Lemias Mashile said:

“In light of the Constitutional Court ruling, the committee urges all registered voters to visit voting stations and verify their addresses to ensure that the elections are deemed free and fair.”

Bapela said IEC records show that there are approximately 6.92 million on the voters roll without any address details.

“The Electoral Commission was only able to source cellphone numbers for 5.3 million of the 6.92 million voters for whom we do not have addresses,” Bapela said.

This is down from approximately 8 million ahead of the March registration weekend.

The SMS messages inform recipients that no address is currently recorded for them in the commission’s records and urges them to visit their voting station this weekend to update their details.

Bapela said the sms allowed voters to opt out of receiving further SMS communication from the IEC.

Efforts to reach the remaining 1.6 million voters include radio adverts, online via the Voting Station Finder App at www.elections.org.za, by dialling *120*432#, smsing their ID number to 32810 and through the Contact Centre on 0800 11 8000.