The Democratic Alliance (DA) is encouraged by the hundreds of thousands of DA supporters that turned out to register and re-register to vote over the weekend. It is most encouraging that the majority of people who came out to exercise their democratic right and duty are young people.
We are particularly pleased that in the three battleground provinces, Gauteng, Northern Cape and the Western Cape, the DA registered and re-registered hundreds of thousands of existing and potential supporters.
This weekend was a true test for the IEC and we have expressed to them that the issues that came up this weekend should be addressed for election day. There were for instance an incident in Limpopo where around 150 people were registered to vote but are all living at the same address as well as some incidents in areas in the Western Cape.
We will continue to liaise with the IEC to ensure that these elections are free, fair and safe.
We will also ensure that there is equitable treatment of all parties by the Office of Electoral Officers; a declaration of non-party affiliation by every presiding officer and access to hourly turnout statistics amongst other things.
We would like to encourage those voters who may not have had a chance to register to vote or re-register to visit their local IEC office before the proclamation of the election date, which is when the voter’s roll will be closed.