Nearly 20 000 voting stations will be open at the weekend for voter registration, the Independent Electoral Commission announced on Thursday.

"The IEC will open 19 713 voting stations from 8am to 5pm to enable first-time voters to register. It is also an opportunity for voters who have moved house to reregister in their new voting district," it said in a statement.

The commission urged South Africans to partake in the voter registration on 8 and 9 November, although the date for both national and provincial elections had not yet been set.

"It is important that the voters roll be updated continuously to take into account factors such as voters who were previously too young to vote or voters who have passed away since the 2006 elections."

The IEC's process of making sure that voting district boundaries were in line with changing settlement patterns and issues of urbanisation among other things, had led to the additional 848 voting districts for the coming elections.

"Since the 1999 elections there has been a 35 percent increase in the number of voting districts nationally."

Ahead of the 2009 elections the IEC had replaced existing voter registration with new hand held scanning units while over 59 000 registration officials will assist people at the voting districts.

First time voters and those wanting to check their details can call the IEC call centre on 0800-11-8000 from a landline which would operate from 7am to 9pm on Sunday.

The commission also reminded voters to bring along their ID books when they came to register.

Sapa