Top 10 Most Searched Questions About the Upcoming SA Elections

By
Luis Monzon
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Image sourced from Office Holidays.

South Africa is just days away from the 1 November 2021 local government elections and Google search activity shows that interest in the sixth municipal election since 1994, has reached an all-time high.

In September, searches for “voter registration” reached the highest level since November 2008 in South Africa while search interest in “how to register” in the context of elections surged.

In the run-up to Monday’s election, search interest for candidates doubled in October from the level recorded in August.

Searches around “election day” have also been steadily rising: search interest for the topic more than doubled (+110%) in October compared to September, while searches for “November 1st” increased by 480% and searches for “municipal election” increased by 100% from 19 – 25 October 2021.

Here are the top 10 most searched questions about the upcoming elections in South Africa:

  1. How many political parties are in South Africa 2021?

  2. Who is my ward councillor?

  3. When are the elections in South Africa?

  4. When is election day 2021?

  5. When are the local government elections?

  6. When are the national elections in South Africa?

  7. When was the last election in South Africa?

  8. What are municipal elections?

  9. When is the presidential election in South Africa?

  10. When was the first democratic election held in South Africa?

Here are the top searched questions about registering to vote:

  1. How to register for elections?

  2. How to register for elections 2021 online?

  3. How to check if you registered for local elections?

  4. Can I register to vote on election day?

  5. Where can I register to vote?

Here are the top searched questions about the voting process:

  1. How many ballot papers for local government?

  2. How to vote in municipal elections?

  3. Who to vote for in South Africa 2021?

  4. Where do I vote for municipal elections?

  5. When does voting start?

How was the data compiled?

Search trends information is gleaned from data collated by Google based on what South Africans have been searching for. Google processes more than 40 000 search queries every second.

This translates to more than a billion searches per day and 1.2 trillion searches per year worldwide.

‘Top searches’ indicate searches that topped Google’s charts while ‘Most searched’ queries are the most popular terms for the past 15 years, ranked in order by volume of searches.

Edited by Luis Monzon
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