The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) said that it is prepared to hold a successful general election in 2024, despite the fact that the election day has not yet been announced.
Chief Electoral Officer Sy Mamabolo made this revelation while pledging the commission to a successful performance at the Midrand, Johannesburg, launch of the Electoral Commission's communication campaign.
Over a million people have registered on the IEC’s online platform to date, with over 400 000 of those being new registrations and the remaining individuals being re-registrations, according to Mamabolo.
Mamabolo said, of the country’s 62 million residents, 26.2 million are currently on the voters roll.
Regarding the date, he said that the IEC is still in discussions with President Cyril Ramaphosa, who is expected to announce the precise date of the general elections. He also urged South Africans to make the most of the impending registration weekends.
“Registration weekends remain a modality that afford most of our citizens access to the electoral process. It is the proverbial equaliser of access to the electoral process. Two such opportunities are planned ahead of the impending elections in 2024. The first of these takes place on the 18th and 19th of November, the date of the second is the subject of consideration by the commission.”
The IEC has also revealed that it has set aside more than 23 000 voting stations across the country during next year’s election while hundreds of thousands of people have been hired to assist during the polls.
With more than 300 political parties including independent candidates contesting the elections, there has been talks that the elections will be a watershed test for the country’s nascent democracy.
Masotho Moepya, the commission’s chairperson, said the commission will approach the next elections with a sense of pride and responsibility because they have grown to be a significant event for the country's fledgling democracy.
“The IEC is approaching these elections with immense pride and a sense of responsibility. This is because our electoral democracy has come a long way since those historic elections in 1994... While it is essential that we recognise the remarkable achievements of the past three decades,” she said.
Ahead of the elections, Moepya called on the political parties and civil society to play their part in ensuring the elections are free and fair.
“We will need to have political parties and candidates carefully draft and present their respective policy and service offerings that seek to affirm a prosperous South Africa in which every every citizens is adorned with a branch of human dignity.
“We will need a civil society that is engaged to encourage voter registration and participation. A civil society that will truly bind communities together for a common good and mindful of its important role to contribute to the success of the elections through disseminating information pertinent to the elections,” she said.