At least 2.2-million potential voters in KwaZulu-Natal have not bothered to register for the upcoming 2009 general elections, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) said.

The majority of these unregistered eligible voters reside in Durban and Pietermaritzburg.

Speaking at a three-day workshop on its state of readiness for the 2009 elections, the commission said this alarming figure had prompted them to plan massive campaigns over the next few months to attempt to bring in the outstanding voters.

"The 2.2-million people who can vote are just not doing so and we are hoping that through our drive we could see much more voters in next year's election. This 2.2-million is now our registration target," said provincial elections manager Ntombifuthi Masinga.

"The challenge is that we need to find them and unfortunately voter registration is not compulsory."

With nearly eight months to go before the election, Masinga said the commission planned to "catch them" during the two voter registration weekends, which starts in November 2008.

Asked what some of the reasons may be for not registering, Masinga said: "It's hard for us to speculate, but our campaign is now geared mainly towards first-time voters."

The commission revealed that while there was an estimated 5.9-million eligible voters in KwaZulu-Nataland, currently only 3.7-million were registered.

In 2006, the number of registered voters in the province stood at 4.1-million, and the commission attributed death of voters as the main reason for the drop in figures.

The IEC's provincial electoral officer Mawethu Mosery said 400 000 voters had died, or left the province since 2006.

Masinga told reporters that the commission was also on track in terms of election readiness in the province.

She said it had completed the recruitment of electoral officers and that training was due to begin in September.

The commission had trained 69 court trainers at boot camps during August, and they, in turn, would train more than 12 000 electoral officers —including presiding officers and their deputies — during September and October.

In total, she said, 12 561 electoral officials were needed for all 4187 voting stations in the province.

Three officials would be placed in each voting station on election day.

The first voter registration weekend takes place on 8/9 November 2008 and the second weekend takes places next year on 7/8 February. The commission said the national elections were expected to take place between 14 April and 14 July 2009, with 146 registered political parties in South Africa to date.

After the elections, a period of seven to 14 days would be set aside for objections.

Reiterating other important points, Masinga noted that prisoners would be allowed to vote in the national elections but awaiting trial prisoners would not.

She stressed that no voter should travel more than five kilometres to a voting station.

After the election, ballot papers would be kept for up to six months and then destroyed.

Sapa