The visits are in preparation of the April 2011 elections. Chief electoral officer Les Strydom said this is to help voters, who now fall under a new ward, to reregister. "In the April 2011 general municipal elections voters can only vote at the voting station that they are registered at."
Residents should ask officials to identify themselves. In general, officials will be wearing IEC T-shirts and other identification tags. Not all voters will be affected by the new boundary delineation.
For election purposes George’s boundaries have already been determined by the Demarcation Board, and it is now a given that the Uniondale municipal area will fall within the George area. George currently has 80 000 voters.
Uniondale, which has 6000 registered vo-ters, will have two wards and nine councillors. In total George and Uniondale will have 59 councillors. Uniondale’s Ongelegen ward (a 90 minute drive from George) falls right on the border with the Eastern Cape.
"We are holding party liaison meetings to inform the political parties of our preparations for the elections," said Strydom who believes that because George has grown exponentially, there will soon be 90 000 registered voters. In the past there was a lot of voter apathy which meant that people did not bother to register. But on the other hand there has been an influx of newcomers to the town, he said.
"It must be remembered that even if a resident has moved from one ward to another within the same town, they must go and reregister at our IEC offices, 2nd floor, Shamrock Place, York Street, so that when they go to their new voting station on election day they will not encounter any problems to vote."
On 5 and 6 February and 5 and 6 March next year the IEC will have voter registration sessions again during which the offices will remain open.
Party candidates are already polishing their images for the forthcoming elections and it has been understood that the DA party has already closed their nominations.
To see when you may expect a call from the IEC, consult the roster.
.jpg)
ARTICLE AND PHOTO: PAULINE LOURENS
