More than 23 million South Africans are registered to vote in the upcoming national and provincial elections, MPs heard on Tuesday.

Briefing Parliament's home affairs portfolio committee, Independent Electoral Commission CEO Pansy Tlakula said the final voter registration drive, held over the weekend of 7-8 February, had attracted a record 1.5 million people.

The total registered for the 22 April elections was 23 100 222. In the previous (2004) national and provincial elections, there were 20 674 926 verified voters on the roll.

According to figures tabled by the IEC at the briefing, the province with the highest number of registered voters is Gauteng, which has almost 10 times that of the Northern Cape. The number of registered voters per province are:

• Eastern Cape: 3 038 478;
• Free State: 1 384 177;
• Gauteng: 5 448 121;
• KwaZulu-Natal: 4 455 983;
• Limpopo: 2 248 044;
• Mpumalanga: 1 690 034;
• Northern Cape: 553 645;
• North West: 1 653 234; and,
• Western Cape: 2 682 506.

Sapa