The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) says the participation of citizens in its voter registration weekend over the last two days, reaffirms South African’s strong commitment to electoral participation. The IEC recorded more than 2.9 million voter registrations during its first voter registration weekend ahead of the local government elections scheduled for 4 November. Chief Electoral Officer Sy Mamabolo says the figure represents a significant increase from the 1.7 million recorded during the voter registration process in 2021. He attributed the growth in registrations
to several factors, including improvements in the commission’s voter registration systems. “The Commission has achieved two significant objectives through this voter registration weekend. Firstly, the continued growth of the voters’ roll and secondly, improved registration yield from young persons. Over the two days of registration, the Commission recorded 2.9 million registration transactions. This is an improvement from the 1.7 million transactions recorded during the voter registration weekend for the comparable election in 2021.” VOTER REGISTRATION | Electoral Commission CEO Sy Mamabolo says 2.9 million registration
transactions were recorded over the weekend, up from 1.7 million in 2021. pic.twitter.com/hJK0LG6NxO — SABC News (@SABCNews) June 22, 2026 VIDEO | IEC briefing on voter registration weekend: The IEC has also announced that its online voter registration portal, very popular with the youth, is now zero-rated. This allows all eligible South Africans to register, update their details, and verify their registration information without incurring data charges. The Electoral Commission says it is encouraged by the positive response of the youth to its voter registration
weekend. “Young people in the age cohort 16 to 29 account for 785 000 of total registration activity which represents 27% of the 2.9 million transactions recorded. 59% of this are female while 41% are male. Young persons also dominated in the new registration category. Of the total new registrations which is 477 000. 80% of all new registrations recorded over the weekend are young persons in the age category 16 to 29,” says Mamabolo.
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