22 Nov 2018

 A total of 750 841 voters registered for the 2019 general elections during a 10-week registration exercise conducted from September 3 to November 11.

Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) principal public relations officer, Mr Osupile Maroba, said in an interview that there were 2 260 polling stations locally and 36 abroad where 881 voters registered.

Mr Maroba said IEC had set a target of 1 273 880, which was 80 per cent of the total eligible population.

He said in 2013, the targeted population was 1 067 219, with the general voter registration exercise period only 24 days and 478 148 voters registered, which translated to 44 per cent before supplementary registration.

He highlighted that the decision to hold supplementary registration or not would be taken by the commission in due course and announced accordingly.

“IEC is not very worried on the statistics because with just the general voter registration, it has registered more than half of the targeted voters and the opportunity for a supplementary window is still available to improve on the numbers,” he said.

Mr Maroba said some of the challenges encountered during registration were allegations of voter trafficking and attempted illegal registrations.
However, he said the issue was dealt with by registration officers. ENDS