We wish to present an update on several key developments in the
electoral landscape, our activities in the first quarter of the present
financial year, and upcoming activities as we prepare for the 2026/2027 Local
Government Elections. As will be apparent from the contents of this statement,
our institutional efforts underscore a commitment to a transparent and inclusive
electoral process, ensuring that all stakeholders are well-informed and thus able
to participate meaningfully.
Women Championing
Democracy
This media briefing takes place during a pivotal
month when we commemorate the monumental contributions of women in bringing
about a democratic order and their continued contributions to sustaining
electoral democracy.
The following key statistics are worth noting as we
commemorate Women’s Month:
- 55 per cent of the 27.6 million registered voters
are women.
- In the 2024 general elections, 57 per cent of the
16.2 million voters were women.
- Women's representation in Parliament stands at 43
percent, which marks a regrettable marginal reduction from the previous 46 per cent
following the 2019 general elections.
- Impressively, women continue to constitute the
majority of the electoral staff cohort at 73%.
During Women's Month, the Electoral Commission is
engaging stakeholders to promote inclusive participation and gender equality in
the electoral process across all nine provinces. Tomorrow, the Electoral
Commission will host its national event celebrating women championing democracy
at Constitutional Hill, Women’s Jail in Johannesburg. The event will bring
together stakeholders from diverse sectors, including political parties, civil
society, women in business, as well as representatives from the youth and
disability sectors. The event will further explore steps to foster greater participation
of women as both candidates and elected representatives.
The 2024
Election Report
In accordance with the provisions of the Electoral
Commission Act, the Commission tabled the 2024 National and Provincial Elections
Report (Election Report) in the National Assembly in early July. The Portfolio
Committee on Home Affairs invited the Commission to a presentation of the
report on 15 July. The discussions with the portfolio committee were robust,
which is a condition necessary for improved electoral performance.
The highlights of the NPE 2024 Election Report are as
follows:
- The election report makes a point that the
elections met international standards for freeness and fairness and met the constitutional
and legal standards.
- The 2024 general elections were a huge national
undertaking with the following as some of the salient statistics:
- 27.78
million registered voters, which is the highest since 1999 when the voters’
roll was first introduced.
- 23 292
voting stations were used, of which 936 were temporary voting stations and 32
were mobile voting stations. The import of this is that, on average, the number
of voters per voting station has been reduced from 1900 to 916.
- 90
million ballot papers were printed within an immutable three-week printing
window period. A dual-column ballot paper was used for the first time in the
elections of the National Assembly. This was necessary to accommodate the
increased number of contestants.
- 14 886
candidates nominated to contest 887 seats. Eleven of whom were independent
candidates.
- 16.2
million citizens voted, representing a voter turnout of 58 per cent. Of this,
1.1 million voted using the special voting dispensation in the two days
preceding voting day.
- 200 526
election staff were recruited and trained for various roles in the voting
stations.
- There was
increased litigation with eighty-eight (88) cases challenging various aspects
of the electoral process. The Electoral Commission prevailed in all except one,
which relates to establishing special voting stations outside of the official
foreign missions of the Republic. An appeal is pending in the Supreme Court of
Appeal on this matter.
- The Commission explained to the Portfolio Committee that the technical glitch relating to the leaderboard was not evidence of a hacking attempt, but rather that it resulted when an optimisation solution was taken into production to expedite the transfer of results data from the primary database into the data warehouse. The data warehouse pulls results data in through a process called “Extract, Transform, and Load,” in short ETL. Firstly, the data warehouse is then used to run several validations, such as whether a result was audited, the associated result slip scanned, and whether there were no exceptions or open edit windows. These validations determine whether a result is complete and therefore ‘ready to display’ or not. Secondly, the data is replicated (transferred) to another data warehouse at the national Results Operations Centre (ROC), from where results are disseminated based on the completeness status. In other words, ‘ready to display’ voting district data is made available to the leaderboard, provincial ROCs, media, and political parties, while various management reports relating to the status of voting districts not yet completed are made available for internal purposes only. Inadvertently, when the optimization solution was taken to production, all voting districts were set to the initial status of ‘not ready to display’.
At the conclusion, the Portfolio Committee welcomed
the report, acknowledged that there were areas for improvement, and commended the
Commission for delivering free, fair, and credible elections.
The report is available to the public on the
Electoral Commission's website at www.elections.org.za.
Preparations
Ahead of LGE 2026
The law provides that the term of a municipal
council is five years and that elections must be held no later than ninety (90)
days following the end of the term. The current municipal councils were elected
on 1 November 2021. This means that the current term will end on 2 November
2026. Therefore, the general elections of municipal councils fall due between 2
November 2026 and the end of January 2027. The authority to set a date and call
an election lies with the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional
Affairs following consultation with the Commission. Consultations between the
Minister and the Commission have commenced, but yet to be concluded.
The municipal wards are the political boundaries
within which a single councillor is elected based on the first-past-the-post
principle. In this regard, the Municipal Demarcation Board (MDB) plays a
pivotal role in shaping the political geography of the country through the
determination of both municipal and ward boundaries. The MDB has indicated that
it is about to conclude the process of ward delimitation. Crucially, the MDB
will hand over final ward boundaries to the Commission at the end of October
2025. There will, however, be a residual of eighteen municipalities that will
be handed over at a later stage. The latter case relates to municipalities that
were subject to requests for the review of external municipal boundaries.
Engagements with the MDB are planned to agree on the precise date for the
receipt of wards for these residual municipalities.
Once the
MDB provides the final set of wards to the Commission, the Commission will
analyse its network of voting districts to ensure that they are geographically
aligned to the final ward boundaries in preparation for voter registration ahead
of LGE 2026-2027.
Election
of Representatives
From 1 April 2025, the Commission has administered thirty-nine (39) ward by-elections. The highest number of vacancies arose in Gauteng municipalities, with eight (8) ward vacancies, followed by Eastern Cape and Western Cape, both with seven (7) ward vacancies. KwaZulu-Natal had six (6) ward vacancies. The overall average voter turnout for these by-elections was 41.58%.
The Proportional Representative (PR) councillors’ vacancies
can only be filled by the chief electoral officer declaring a replacement
councillor elected. In the current financial year, that is April to August
2025, the Electoral Commission has replaced one hundred forty-nine (149) proportional
representative councillors.
On average, the Electoral Commission replaces three
hundred seventy-seven (377) PR councillors in a financial year.
Registration of Political Parties
Since the 2024 general elections, the Commission
has registered a total of thirty-four (34) new political parties.
Thirteen (13) of the new parties were registered in the period between July
2025 and today. Currently, the total number of registered political parties is
four hundred seventy-two (472). Of these, two hundred eighty-seven (287)
are registered on a national level, while the balance of one hundred
eighty-five (185) are either registered provincially or on the district
or metro municipal level.
Political contestants remain critical in this
planning phase. The Commission will convene a series of information sessions
starting in November 2025 with registered but unrepresented political parties
and aspiring independent candidates in preparation for the upcoming elections.
The sessions in November will mark the beginning of formal consultations with
key stakeholders and will focus on, among others:
- The
legislative scheme for local government,
- Requirements
to contest for seats in a municipal council.
- The
roadmap to the elections and critical milestones,
- How
votes are converted into seats.
Party Funding
On 18 and 19 June 2025, the Commission held the inaugural
symposium on Political Funding in South Africa in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal. The
symposium brought together leaders of political parties, parliamentarians,
representatives from civil society, and academia to evaluate progress since the
promulgation of the political funding law, including the strides made towards
reaching the desired ideal state.
Key highlights emerging from the conference
included:
- The
adequacy of current party funding disclosure requirements was raised for
potential review.
- Stakeholders
emphasised the importance of extending political funding support to the
local government sphere and exploring funding mechanisms for unrepresented
political parties to promote inclusivity.
- The
need to strengthen oversight and institutional capacity, particularly in
monitoring and enforcement, was highlighted as critical, along with
improving the legal framework to address gaps such as related-party
donation reporting.
- A
call for increased public awareness and engagement to encourage private
donors to better understand and enhance public contributions to the
Multi-Party Democracy Fund (MPDF). We call on corporate South Africa to
donate to the Multi-Party Democracy Fund. Supporting the MPDF helps to
foster a vibrant democracy and amplify diverse political voices.
The Electoral Commission is in the process of
preparing a report highlighting key recommendations for consideration by
Parliament.
The Electoral Commission further acknowledges the
recent amendment to the regulations on political party funding in South Africa.
The revised regulations were promulgated by the President on 18 August. Under
the revised rules, the minimum disclosure threshold has increased from R100,000
to R200,000, while the maximum allowable annual donation has risen from R15
million to R30 million in a financial year.
Voter
Education
The Electoral Commission's Civic and Democracy
Education (CDE) programme continues to play a pivotal role in citizen
engagement. Between April and August, the Electoral Commission hosted no fewer
than twenty-four thousand (24 388) face-to-face civic and voter
education events to foster a culture of civic responsibility.
The breakdown per province shows that Limpopo
recorded the highest number of events at 4 562, followed by
KwaZulu-Natal with 4 136 and the Eastern Cape with 3 448. Gauteng
conducted 2 961 events, while Mpumalanga and the Western Cape registered
2 703 and 2 456 events, respectively. North-West accounted for 1
782, with the Free State at 1 172 and the Northern Cape at 1 168
events. The focus of these events was on encouraging and preparing
first-time voters, promoting active participation, and fostering responsible
citizenship among young people.
Appointment
of Commissioners
The Electoral Commission has three vacancies that
come into effect in November 2025. In this regard, we wish to thank the Chief
Justice and members of her panel for successfully concluding the interview
process for the selection of the new commissioners. The Chief Justice has now
tabled a report with a shortlist of eight candidates in the National Assembly.
We have further noted that the National Assembly
has since referred the matter to the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs for
processing. Once the Portfolio Committee completes its deliberations, a report
with three recommended candidates will be submitted to the National Assembly
for a resolution. Thereafter the resolution of the National Assembly will be
transmitted to the President, who will make the appointments and designate a
chairperson.
Electronic
Voting
The Electoral Commission urges all South Africans
to actively participate in the ongoing public consultations on the feasibility of
introducing electronic voting (e-voting) at some point in the future. Public
consultations are currently taking place across all provinces to ensure
inclusive and wide-reaching engagement on the policy document.
We invite South Africans to submit their views,
proposals, and concerns on this important matter. Submissions should be sent to
the email address [email protected] by no
later than the end of September 2025.
Following the conclusion of the consultation
process, the Commission will integrate the comments into the current discussion
document to produce a green paper. The green paper will then be presented to
the Minister of Home Affairs to process through the relevant constitutional
structures.
We take the opportunity to emphasise that the
Commission has not yet decided on adopting e-voting. The current physical ballot
papers will be used in the impending municipal elections, as there is no
official national policy and legislative framework on e-voting.
IEC Receives Clean Audit Outcome for the 5th
Consecutive Year
The Electoral Commission is pleased to announce that
the Auditor-General of South Africa has completed the external audit of the
Commission's 2024/25 financial statements, including those related to Political
Funding. Both audits resulted in a clean audit opinion, an achievement which the
Commission has now secured for the fifth consecutive year. A clean audit
opinion attests to the fact that the Electoral Commission manages the public
resources placed at its disposal prudently and in accordance with the
prescripts.
The Commission commends its staff for working
tirelessly to ensure that accountability, proficiency, and transparency remain
at the centre of the organisation's business practices.
Job Scams
The Electoral Commission wishes to warn the public
about fake job adverts and fraudulent pages that falsely claim to be linked to
the organisation. These scams are designed to mislead people into clicking on
deceptive links and sharing personal information. The Commission advises that
all legitimate positions are advertised only on the official website and verified
social media platforms of the organization.
Register where you live, and vote where you’re
registered
As we prepare for the 2026 Elections, citizens are
reminded to register to vote in voting districts of the wards where they are residents.
A registered voter who has moved since they last registered is urged to check
and, if necessary, update their address details to ensure that they are
registered in a ward linked to their new place of residence.
Registering as a voter and updating your registration
is quick and easy. Voters may register, inspect, and update their details by visiting
Registertovote.elections.org.za – available
24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The process is quick, safe, and secure. Simply
keep your identity document at hand and follow prompts. You can update your
details from the comfort of your home in just minutes.
Register and update your voter registration details
today, because every vote counts, and your voice has the power to shape your
community.
ISSUED BY THE ELECTORAL COMMISSION
Ensuring
free, fair and credible elections
For media queries: Please contact Kate Bapela on
082 600 6386
For media interviews: Email requests to [email protected]
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