IEC hopeful to attract more young KZN voters
With registration for local government elections getting underway today, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) says it is confident it will attract a large number of young voters.
The IEC says during its last major voter registration drive in 2014, 170 000 of the 300 000 people registered to vote were first time voters below the age of 21. The commission's Mawethu Mosery says this time around they expect similar numbers from KZN's 6.4 million eligible voters.
He says attracting young voters has always been a challenge.
"Common problems are whether they are informed on major opportunities such as this registration weekend, the value of voting where we need to educate them on their citizenship responsibilities and motivating them to go and register," he said.
It also says it is seeking to add one million more to the voters roll. Voting stations will be open from 8am to 5pm today and tomorrow.
Fourty eight more voting stations have been added in the province - taking to 4795 the total number of stations.
The IEC says the increase is aimed at making voting more accessible and to factor in recently developed areas such as Cornubia, north of Durban. Over 5000 voters are already registered to vote at the Westville's Town Hall.
Doors had been scheduled to open at 8 O'clock this morning, but registration was expected to pick up from around midday until in the afternoon.
(Photo: Gallo Images)