The 1,6-million-page voters' roll contains the names of 23 181 997 people who registered to vote for Wednesday's fourth democratic election, according to the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC).

Of those, 86 000 had applied to cast special votes on Monday and Tuesday.

These included the physically infirm, those who are in an advanced stage of pregnancy, electoral staff and security personnel and people who expected to be out of the country on Wednesday and had applied for a special vote.

An additional 16 240 voters had indicated they would vote overseas on April 15, the day set aside for their vote.

This election's number of registered voters is higher than the 18 172 751 who registered for 1999, and the 20 674 926 in 2004.

Forty parties will contest the elections - 26 nationally and 14 provincially only.

In the Eastern Cape, 17 parties are contesting, the Free State 14, Gauteng 20, KwaZulu-Natal 17, Limpopo 18, Mpumalanga 15, North West 16, Northern Cape 13 and Western Cape 22. All except KwaZulu-Natal have more parties contesting than in 2004.

More women (12 722 622) than men (10 459 375) registered in the 19 726 voting districts, even though the IEC had a drive to bring in more male voters.

About 200 000 election officials are expected to be on duty around the country.

According to the voters' roll, in Eastern Cape there are 3 056 559 registered voters, Free State 1 388 588, Gauteng 5 461 972, KwaZulu-Natal 4 475 217, Limpopo 2 256 073, Mpumalanga
1 696 705, Northern Cape 554 900, North West 1 657 544 and Western Cape 2 634 439.

There are 669 421 voters in the 18 to 19 age group; 5 614 209 are between 20 and 29; 5 710 969 between 30 to 39; 4 579 588 are 40 to 49; 3 232 432 are between 50 to 59; 1 873 529 between 60 to 69; 1 032 013 between 70 and 79 and 469 836 who are 80 and older.

There are more registered voters in the 30 to 39 age group (24,64%), followed by the 20 to 29 age group (24,22%).

Those between 18 and 19 form 2,89% of the voters' roll.

The IEC estimates that there will be 4 900 domestic observers, 355 international observers, and 358 diplomats from 61 embassies.

Results can only be announced 48 hours after voting stations close to give political parties a chance to raise objections and must be announced within seven days.

The IEC also remembered sight-impaired voters, including a braille ballot template for national and provincial votes at each station, to the over 50-million ballot papers they ordered from printers.

Over 500 staffers per shift will be working at the IEC's operations centre in Pretoria.

The centre will have 450 computer workstations, 300 telephone units, 22 km of data and fibre cabling and telephone cabling, and over 1 000 electricity power points.

Five television stations and seven radio stations will work out of the centre, in addition to the other media.

Thousands of security force staffers have been deployed to make sure there are no problems.

All that remains is for voters to get to their voting stations between 7am and 9pm.