In the Free State, the IEC will take to 28 colleges in the province to fulfil this mandate. According to IEC manager in the province, Itumeleng Diba, only eligible voters who reside at these facilities will be permitted to apply for registration where they are. Meanwhile, the leader of the South African Student’s Congress (Sasco) at the University of the Free State, Asive Dlanjwa, spoke on the importance of young persons around the country registering to vote.

The IEC has been at the university since 08h30 this morning and will continue until 17h00 this afternoon. This will continue until Wednesday, which will be the last day to register students across colleges and universities across the province. “During the weekend of voter registrations, those students were still at home. Now that we know when the elections will be, which is the 8th of May, we also know that students will be on campus on that day. So, in our communication and negotiations with the IEC, we had requested that they come on campuses so that those students who were unable to register, will be able to do so,” Dlanjwa said. The student organisation’s leader also said based on door-to-door visits he had conducted, he was positive that young people were eager to vote and that while voter apathy is a factor, many students expressed a willingness to participate in the upcoming elections. He also revealed that many of the youth he spoke to stated that they were unaware of the IEC’s marketing efforts, which are targeting over a million young people in the country who remain unregistered for voting.

Meanwhile, he urged all those between the ages of 18 and 35 who had not yet registered to vote to do so at their nearest municipal offices. A list of offices is available on the IEC website at www.elections.org.za or at the Contact Centre on 0800 11 8000. Registered voters can also still update and change their registration and provide their address details via the Electoral Commission’s “Click, Check and Confirm” facility on the website.

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