More than a million voters have registered during the second voter registration weekend, the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) confirmed. At close of registration on day one and two, more than half a million registrations were recorded at 23 303 voting stations on both days. while more than 564 new voters registered on Sunday.

YOUTH HEADED THE CALL

Of the one million registered over the weekend, more than 700 000 were new voters with over 81% of those being the youth under 30. IEC spokesperson Kate Bapela said this means that the youth have heeded their call to register to vote. "Combined with new registrations during the March 2018 registration weekend, the voters' roll has seen 1 194 314 new voters added ahead of the upcoming elections. Of these new voters, 52% are women and 48 percent are men. Nearly half are aged between 20 and 29 while 26.6% are aged between 18 and 19," Bapela said. The new registrations bring the total number of registered voters on the voters roll to 26 million.

KZN HAD THE MOST REGISTRATION

KwaZulu-Natal registered the highest number of new registrations followed by Gauteng and the Eastern Cape. Bapela added that in terms of the total voters' roll, Gauteng has the most registered voters at 6.3million, followed by KZN with 5.5 million voters, the Eastern Cape with 3.3 million, Western Cape sitting at 3.1 million, Limpopo 2. 6 million and Mpumalanga 1.9 million. The province with the lowest numbers of registered voters are North West with 1.7million voters registered, Free State at 1.4million and the Northern Cape with only 1.4 million registered voters. "The Electoral Commission extends sincere appreciation to the citizens for their enthusiastic participation. Whether you are a first-time participant or a seasoned voter, we encourage all South Africans to seize this historic moment by registering and casting their votes in the forthcoming elections," she added. During the two-day voter registration, Home Affairs extended their working hours and opened their offices around the country to help those who needed IDs. The department reports that 23 400 people came to collect their IDs while a further 9 100, mostly first-time applicants, came to apply for IDs. "More than 920 people applied for and received temporary identification," the department said.