Despite some drizzles, South Africans were flocking to more than 19 000 voter registration stations across the country on Sunday to register for next year's general elections, the Electoral Commission said in a media release.

They were also visiting the Electoral Commission's (IEC) website and contacted its call centre to confirm their voting status.

By 11am on Saturday, an estimated 1.1 million people had visited the voter registration stations to either register, re-register if they had moved or changed residence or to inspect their details on the voter's roll.

"Weather conditions continued to impact on the anticipated turnout.

"However the IEC is confident that more people will still find time to visit the registration stations on Sunday," said IEC chairperson Brigalia Bam.

"We expect final figures of the registration weekend around Wednesday.

"We hope that these figures will include a substantial number of young people who will have registered."

All registration stations were open, including Moutse.

The Chief Electoral Officer, Pansy Tlakula, and Commissioner Terry Tselane, visited Moutse East, including Elandsdoring, Tambo and Ntoane and witnessed the opening of registration stations.

Nobody will be turned away

"While the stations will close at 5pm, nobody present at those stations at the time will be turned away before they are registered or their details have been checked," she said.

On Saturday, the IEC's website had received more than 206 556 hits, 195 598 had sent SMSs and more than 22 500 had made enquiries with the IEC's call centre.

By Sunday morning the IEC website had recorded a total of 59 137 hits, while the SMS facility received 53 540 messages and the call centre 19 444 calls.

So far, over the two days, the IEC's website has received more than 259 693 hits, the SMS facility 249 138, and call centre, 50 000 calls.

"We are promoting this national effort with the hope that it will help answer voters' questions, register new ones and make participation as simple as possible as we head into our general election next year," Bam said.

Sapa