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Compiled by the Government Communication and Information System Date: 07 Nov 2008 Title: New devise to ensure smooth voter registrations -------------------- By Nthambeleni Gabara Pretoria - The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has introduced a modern hand-held device to help ensure voters are efficiently registered this weekend. The first round of voter registration kicks of this weekend ahead of the 2009 General Elections, Potential voters have to be registered first in order to vote. Briefing reporters on the IEC's readiness to host this weekend's voter registration, IEC Deputy Chairperson Thoko Mpumlwana said the portable hand-held scanning units, known as Zip Zaps, could store the complete voters roll. "With the Zip-Zips, we are no longer going to look for potential voter's details manually; scanning units optimises the efficiency of registration and voting. We have already procured the Zip-Zips which have the capacity to hold the total voters' roll," she said. The IEC said the recruitment and training of registration staff had been finalised. Ms Mpumlwana confirmed that more than 59 000 registration officials would be deployed for the voter registration weekend. In August this year, the IEC Centre for Elections Learning trained a group of 115 Master Trainers. The National Lead Trainers (NLT) programme is an intensive, week-long seminar in management, problem-solving principles, techniques and their application in administering elections. A total of 1 761 field workers were employed who went door-to-door to engage voters. These efforts were supported by road shows and stakeholder engagements," she said. A public call centre was launched in October where voters can check whether they are already registered or locate which voting station they should register as if they are first-time voters. The SMS service, where voters can send their ID numbers to 32810 to check their registration details, is still being used by the majority of South Africans. Since the launch of the 2009 elections in September, a total of 221, 932 SMS messages have been recorded. IEC Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Pantsy Tlakula said although the date for the 2009 national and provincial elections has not yet been determined, she urged South Africans to register in numbers. She said they will open 19 713 voting stations countrywide this weekend from 8am to 5pm to enable first-time voters to register. Ms Tlakula said it was also an opportunity for voters who have moved from one area to the other to re-register in their new voting districts. "We would like to remind potential voters to take their green bar-coded Identity Documents (ID) or valid Temporary Identity Certificates (TIC) with them when they got to register. "As a commission we also want to urge all political parties to urge and encourage their members and supporters to register or check their details at the registration stations," she said. Ms Tlakula further urged all political parties, their members and supporters to respect the rights of all eligible South Africans to make use of this opportunity to register to vote. Before every election, the IEC embarks on a re-delimitation process to ensure that voting district boundaries are aligned to changing settlement patterns, demographic movements such as urbanisation and de-population. This process has resulted in an additional 848 voting districts. Once the delimitation revision has been completed, targeted registration will follow in areas that have been affected by re-delimitation. Ms Mpumlwana said during the Targeted Communication Registration (TCR) Project, which involves a combination of actual registration of voters and informing them through a pamphlet about the change in their voting station details, was conducted earlier this year targeting a total of 1 191 voting districts. "Since the 1999 elections, there has been a 35 percent increase in the number of voting districts or stations nationally," Ma Mpumlwana said. - BuaNews |
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