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The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) today released the results of the Survey on South African voter participation in elections in Pretoria ahead of the 2006 Municipal Elections on 1 March. A number of institutions conduct surveys on voter patterns throughout the world to help manage the effectiveness of the electoral process. It is therefore, against this background that the IEC commissioned the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) to conduct this survey, the Chairperson of the IEC, Dr Brigalia Bam, said. Dr Bam said it is important to get objective information about voter participation in South Africa, specific to municipal elections. The survey sought to determine the culture of voting behaviour throughout the country. Other subsidiary objectives included: -
determining the extent and location of unregistered potential voters in South Africa; -
assessing voting behaviours and patterns; -
obtaining information regarding people’s perception of general governance issues that might impact on voting behaviour; -
determining awareness and knowledge of the forthcoming municipal elections; and -
assessing perceptions of the IEC. “It is encouraging to note from the survey report the overwhelming interest by South Africans in voting, after six successive elections. According to the survey report, all registered respondents in the nine provinces indicated that they are registered in the district in which they were currently residing (91%),” said Dr Bam. Voter registration for the upcoming municipal elections pointed to the fact that South African democracy is maturing. Over 21 million of a possible 27 million eligible voters have now registered to vote in the coming elections. This is indeed encouraging, taking into account that democracy is a new concept in South Africa. Democracy is an ongoing process and people are starting to internalise multi-partyism. In these municipal elections alone, 97 political parties are participating and 45 189 candidates countrywide will contest the elections. This represents 19% growth in contesting political parties and 50% increase in candidates participating compared to the 2000 municipal elections. Almost 96, 3% of people polled in the survey, said they had one identity document, while only 3, 7% said they did not have one. These results are consistent for all the provinces with not one scoring lower than 90%. To check your registration details or confirm where you should vote contact the Call Centre toll free on 0800 11 8000 or visit the IEC website at www.elections.org.za or SMS your ID number to 32810. ISSUED BY THE INDEPENDENT ELECTORAL COMMISSION
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