The website of the Independent Electoral Commission was "clogged" by over 180 000 visits to the site before noon on Friday, the Commission said.

IEC Chief Executive Pansy Tlakula said 46 000 ordinary visitors had accessed the site, over 101 000 people visited the site to enquire about whether they were registered to vote, and 37 000 people had asked where they should go to register to vote.

"These numbers are growing by the hour," Tlakula said.

The IEC was also receiving thousands of sms's from people wishing to check their registration details.

"There was a time when we were receiving more than 1800 sms requests simultaneously. More than 53 000 sms's were answered in 24 hours and 43 000 of the 77 000 request this morning has thus been responded to.

"We are increasing capacity, but it is not easily recognisable because as we increase the capacity it gets taken up."

The IEC also had a problem with cross-browser compatibility. The site could only be accessed using Microsoft Explorer. This problem would be fixed in two months time.

The Commission was receiving more calls than it had capacity to handle and was doubling its resources. Additional capacity would be in place on Saturday.

South Africans could sms their Identification (ID) number to 32810 to check their registration details or could visit www.elections.org.za and enter their ID number to get their details.

The Commission's call centre would be open over the weekend on 0800 11 8000 between 7am to 9pm on 8-9 November.

Tlakula pleaded for patience from people due to the "high volume of visits and requests for information".

Sapa