By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Chief Electoral Officer Sy Mamabolo said that the registration weekend was very successful, with many new voters added to the roll.
Addressing the media on Monday afternoon on the outcome of the voter registration weekend which was held over the weekend, Mamabolo said “approved applicants already have their addresses captured in the IEC system”, an undertaking that would have “previously taken weeks to capture the address details of new applicants”.
“Our expectation is that the use of the portal will remain on the top end for most of today as people use the remain hours to register,” said Mamabolo.
He added that “the digital channel provides voters with the convenience of use in terms of time of application as well as place of applicant”.
Mamabolo reiterated that the channel would “become an anchor mechanism of registration for the future” and, “in this regards, a solid base has been laid for its future use”.
When asked about the challenges faced by some who tried to register using the online portal, Mamabolo said there had been increased traffic on the site.
He said the IEC had “built more capacity and made certain technical changes”.
“That portal was working on 20 servers before the peak and we had increased server capacity, with at least 10 more servers just to increase the infrastructure capacity… those are some of the interventions we made and there was great improvements, and we monitor it on a 24-hour basis and we are able to intervene at short notice,” said Mamabolo.
Over the two-day voter registration weekend, 433 198 new potential voters registered to vote.
There were a total of 1.7 million total registrations over the weekend, most of who were registered voters making changes to their registration information.
Eligible voters have until midnight to register online.
Mamabolo announced that special votes would be cast on October 30 and 31, 2021.
Applications from persons who are unable to visit voting stations owing to infirmity will be visited at home or places of confinement while other successful candidates will cast their special votes at the voting stations.
Announcing the key election milestones, Mamabolo said the candidate nomination process would close at 17:00 on September 21, 2021.
IEC vice-chairperson Janet Love also took the opportunity to welcome the Constitutional Court judgement, saying it “confirmed that we are acting within the framework of the law and that there is no basis to come to the conclusion that we are acting with partiality”.