Next Wednesday, 10 million South Africans who are eligible to vote won’t be at the ballot stations because they did not register. By polling and historic voter turnout patterns, about five million more people who have registered are unlikely to make to the polls.
Let this sink in: almost one in three eligible voters in South Africa are either so disenchanted with politics or for whom democracy means so little in their daily lives that they did not turn up even to register. It could end up looking bleaker if you consider that the likely voter turnout is about 71% – which means that another five million people are not likely to turn out to vote.
What’s going on?….more
