Estimates by IDASA, a South African based independent institute that watches democratic performance said the 800 000 included dead people who would have been eligible to vote, some who were too sick to register, and others who might have been too sick to turn up on voting day.
It was expected that there would also be a number of those who would not vote because they were caring for sick people.
The South African Electoral Commission tried to reduce the number of those who would miss the elections on account of infirmity or sickness. By Monday voting was opened for 93 000 people with disabilities who had registered for special voting.
The number also includes members of the police and defence forces who were assigned to help run the elections on voting day.
Asked whether she was going to vote, a young white female hotel receptionist, Margaret de Villiers, (not real name) said she would be working. Margaret said she did not know whether her co-workers were going to vote. “I have not had many discussions with people about going to vote, so I really do not know. I have to work on Wednesday,” she said. “It will also be my birthday,” she revealed.
A older woman receptionist of Malay hue at the small town of Victoria West declared, “Yes I am gong to vote. Everybody must vote”.
Radio reports on Tuesday said that South Africa’s largest workers union, COSATU, had received complaints that some employers had refused to release their employees on voting day. COSATU urged employers to release their workers to go and vote.
By Tuesday the electoral commission had assisted a good number of people with disabilities to vote. They were setting up polling stations for voting on Wednesday.
Speaking on Radio, director of the Independent Electoral Commission, Brigalia Bam said that she expected to beat the 89 percent voter turnout achieved in 1999.
“We have learnt some lessons from 1999. This time we will have warehouses to support polling stations with voting materials so that we do not have difficulties with shortages of ballot papers and other materials. We have also increased the polling stations by 170 and we have a call service for people who want to know where they are supposed to vote,” she said.
About 21 million people have been registered to vote. This will be the third general election after non-racial democracy was introduced in South Africa in 1994.
Leader of the New National Party, Nicholas van Schalwyk addressed a political rally at their strong hold in Mitchell’s Plain, Cape Town, in a last ditch effort to hold on to their constituency in the Western Cape over the Easter weekend.
The ANC has been compelled to strike a coalition with an opposition party in the province because the coloured population, which forms over half the voters, was initially distrustful of black rule immediately after 1994. The New National Party led the provincial administration towards the general election.
Similarly Mangosuthu Buthelezi’s Inkatha Freedom Party, which runs the Kwa-Zulu Natal province, has entered into a coalition with the Democratic Alliance Movement in order to stave off a formidable challenge by the ANC.
However, most polls indicated that the best that the opposition political parties can do is to deprive the ANC of a two-thirds majority in parliament, which would enable it to enact legislation without support from the other parties.
The Natal and Cape provinces appeared to be the most important in opposition campaigns to deny the ANC a constitutional majority that would permit it to virtually run government alone.
Some polls suggest that the ANC might raise its vote to 73 percent from 66 in 1999. The NNP claims that it is within reach of 17 percent although the most generous poll gives them about 10 with the remaining 17 percent shared among seven other contesting parties.
There seems to be little doubt however, that the ANC will be returned as the government and Thabo Mbeki for his second and last term as president.
