The first voter registration weekend for this year’s municipal elections will take place in March, the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) said on Thursday.<\/p>\n
A total of 24.95 million people were registered to vote, chief electoral officer Mosotho Moepya said at the IEC’s official 2016 municipal elections launch in Midrand.<\/p>\n
This was slightly lower than the number of registered voters during the 2014 general elections, which was 25.3 million.<\/p>\n
Moepya said the reason was that the names of people who had died were removed from the list.<\/p>\n
The first voter registration weekend would take place on March 5 and 6.<\/p>\n
Moepya said proclamation of the date for the elections was the prerogative of newly-appointed Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister David van Rooyen.<\/p>\n
The elections are due to take place in May 2016, however, no firm date has been set, with some reports suggesting that it may be later because the ANC will only launch its manifesto in March.<\/p>\n
The Democratic Alliance (DA) launched its Local Government elections campaign in Nelson Mandela Bay Metro in September, while the ANC is expected to launch its manifesto there in March, indicating its genuine fear about losing the Eastern Cape hub.<\/p>\n
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