Question NW1032 to the Minister of Home Affairs
07 October 2019 - NW1032
Lotriet, Prof A to ask the Minister of Home Affairs
(1) What is the total number of voting districts where voters have to travel (a) between 20 to 30kms and (b) more than 30kms to reach a voting station; (2) In which provinces are the voting districts situated and (b) what total number of voters are affected?
Reply:
1(a) There are 603 voting districts in which the furthest point is more than 20 kilometres from the voting station established to serve the voting district.
(b) There are 363 voting districts in which the furthers point is more than 30 kilometres from the voting station established to serve the voting district.
It must be noted that among the key considerations in the establishment of voting districts is the time that it takes a voter to access a voting station. In this regard guidelines have been implemented to ensure that voters in rural areas do not travel more than 12, 5 kilometres to access a voting station. The norm for urban areas is 6, 5 kilometres. While there may be outliers, successive studies conducted by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) among voters who had just voted on Election Day indicated that 97% of voters reported that they travelled less than 60 minutes to access a voting station. Similarly, 68% of voters reported that they travelled less than 15 minutes to access a voting station. The furtherst points from the voting station do not imply that there are settlements in all of those points and therefore voters. These coincide largely with voting districts in predominantly low population density areas that are rural in character and are also spatially vast.
2. The details of the voting districts are set out in the attached spread sheet attached as Annexure A and B.
END