Cape Town — President Cyril Ramaphosa said the country is now ready for the upcoming general elections and is confident that the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) will ensure things run smoothly.
Ramaphosa was speaking to the media ahead of the ANC’s political manifesto on Saturday 24 February. Now that he proclaimed 29 May as the election date into the government gazette, he is confident that the IEC will oversee fair and free elections, SABC News reported.
“I have made the announcement of the date for elections and the proclamations is now out, basically means that the it’s all systems go the country is ready to go elections. The IEC is also ready and the IEC is a highly professional body that has been able to run elections without any hint of any doubt whatsoever, and I do believe that they will be able to run a free, fair and credible election.” Ramaphosa said
President @CyrilRamaphosa has, in terms of Section 49(2) of the Constitution, read with Section 17 of the Electoral Act (Act No 73 of 1998), proclaimed 29 May 2024 as the date for the general national and provincial elections. https://t.co/ia5Zcos9uY
— #SONA2024 | Presidency 🇿🇦 (@PresidencyZA) February 23, 2024
Friday 23 February marked the final day of voter registration as the IEC also encouraged all first-time voters to use its online portal or visiting local offices. IEC Vice-Chairperson Janet Love, gave an update on the IEC’s preparations ahead of the 2024 National and Provincial elections.
“In engaging with young people over the last few years and we very clear that most of the young people in our country are no in any way disengaged in political activity, but many of them just have not seen elections as the platform and we encouraging young people to recognise and come out in their numbers to make a difference. So we are hopeful and we have seen some changes towards attitudes in elections but we do know young people are engaged.” she said.
With 29 May now confirmed as the official election date, the Presidency declared the day as an official public holiday. The declaration was signed on Wednesday and accompanied by a proclamation declaring the election date, TimesLIVE reported.
In terms of section 2A of the Public Holidays Act, I hereby declare May 29 2024 as a public holiday,” President Cyril Ramaphosa announced in a government gazette on Friday.
Presidency spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya, said Ramaphosa urged all South Africans to head to the polls in their numbers.
“I call on all South Africans to exercise their democratic right to vote and for those who will be campaigning, to do so peacefully within the full observance of the law. We also urge unregistered voters to use the online registration platform to register.” he said.
Follow African Insider on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
Picture:
For more African news, visit Africaninsider.com
Compiled by Matthew Petersen
