The Electoral Commission in KwaZulu-Natal says it is ready for the first national voter registration weekend, which takes place this Saturday and Sunday. KwaZulu-Natal currently has the highest number of registered voters in the country.
The number of polling stations in the province has also increased. The IEC in the province says it’s all systems go.
All 5 021 voting stations will be open by the weekend. This is an increase of 47 since the 2024 national elections.
The province has also seen an increase in the number of wards from 901 to 921. This followed the realignment of municipal boundaries by the municipal demarcation board.
The changes in ward boundaries have affected more than 1 100 voting districts.
Whilst, the IEC has updated the registration information of more than 93 000 voters, the commission estimates that its only reached 25% of the voters who are required to re-register.
KZN Provincial Electoral Officer Ntombifuthi Masinga explains, ” So we’re trying to make sure that at least people understand that I was ward 1, I’m now ward 2, I need to re-register so that my name now appears on the ward 2 voters roll. That’s what we’re trying to correct. And some people might show up at a voting station that is no longer their voting station. We know how easily people get annoyed on election day if you move them around from pillar to post, which is what will happen. People will show up at voting stations, and they will find their names are no longer at that voting station. And chances are they won’t vote, they’re not interested.”
According to Masinga, the IEC regularly meets with the police and the State Security Agency to discuss the security situation in the province.
Tensions brought about by the recent anti-immigration protests have triggered public safety concerns.
“Outside of the Provincial Joints, with the security establishmnet on the security plan, they share with us how they categorised voting stations in the province. They categorise them in terms of high medium and low risk for medium and low risk. They don’t have static deployments. They have members that are over throughout the day over the registration weekend but from higher risk victims they categorise the VDs it is not us, for higher risk voting stations. They will have stated deployments, where they will have members stationed in those voting stations throughout the day.”
The IEC is yet to receive the list of high-risk voting stations – where police officers will be stationed this weekend.
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