Address by the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission at the Official Declaration of the 2026 Local Government Elections Results
Programme Director,
His Excellency, President Cyril Ramaphosa Fellow Commissioners, The Chief Electoral Officer and members of the Electoral Commission's leadership, Representatives of political parties, Independent candidates, Members of the diplomatic corps, Representatives of civil society, Our election observers, Members of the media, Distinguished guests, Fellow South Africans.
Democracy is a collective effort.
The Electoral Commission is a constitutional institution. Its authority derives from the Constitution and the law, but its credibility is sustained through the confidence that the people of South Africa place in it.
Section 190 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa enjoins the Electoral Commission to ensure that the elections it conducts are free and fair.
The freeness and fairness of an election cannot be presumed. It must be established.
In this regard, the Commission enlisted the services of the Human Science Research Council to establish the voter sentiment ahead of the 2026 Local Government Elections.
The findings concluded that the various institutions of our society, including political parties, Parliament, women’s formations, the judiciary, traditional leadership, faith-based organisations and even the Electoral Commission itself, existed in a low trust environment.
The implication was clear. Unless certain intentional measures were taken, South Africans were going to go into the November 4 Local Government Elections in a low trust environment.
The Commission thus undertook deliberate activities to engage as many stakeholders as was possible.
We engaged with political parties, traditional leaders, faith-based organisations, students in universities and learners in schools; people with disabilities and other civil society formations across the country to obviate the undesired possibility of elections taking place under those conditions and therefore affecting voter turnout.
In addition, the Commission promulgated the Code of Conduct to curb misinformation and disinformation and worked together with social platforms to produce a memorandum of understanding.
The Commission established a digital media team to inform, track disinformation and misinformation across digital platforms and provide South Africans with information they could trust in making their democratic participation choices.
The spread of digital platforms, the increasing sophistication of artificial intelligence, the speed at which information and misinformation travel, and the growing contestation of public institutions all present new challenges.
Protecting electoral integrity therefore extends beyond the physical security of ballot papers and the accuracy of results. It also includes protecting the information environment in which voters make their choices.
This, the Commission has done and is satisfied that the 2026 Local Government are indeed, free and fair. It is our assessment that the elections were largely conducted in a peaceful environment.
The Commission is thus pleased to declare the 2026 Local Government Elections.
We say this based on the findings of the Elections Satisfaction Survey 2026 which was tasked with assessing the voters’ view on the election process, including its integrity and operational efficiency.
The HSRC Survey found the following:
- Electoral Integrity remains strong with 90% regarding the procedures as free and 91% as fair.
- Election administration was evaluated as performing well with 95% satisfied with IEC services and that 91% queued for not longer than 30 minutes.
- Trust in the Electoral Commission remains high at 81% but has gradually declined from 93% in 2016.
- Some concerns require targeted attention: intimidation, impartiality, inclusive voting and information gaps are important areas that require improvement.
- The electoral process retains public confidence among voters.
We are gathered here this evening to not only declare the 2026 Local Government Elections but to also pay tribute to all South Africans whose efforts in the various parts of our beautiful country, made this evening possible.
All 213 municipal councils have now been finalised and declared. A total of 29.2 million voters were registered for the 2026 Municipal Elections. Approximately 14.9 million South Africans cast their ballots in these elections.
The national turnout for these elections is 52%, representing an increase of 6.1 percentage points from the 45.9% turnout recorded in the 2021 Local Government Elections.
Running an election in a democracy is akin to conducting an orchestra. It is about bringing together many different instruments, talents, voices and temperaments. Each has its own contribution to make.
Each has its own part to play. And while they may not always produce the same sound, it is the ability to bring them together in pursuit of a common purpose that makes the performance possible.
That is why the success of the 2026 Local Government Elections has a parent in each South African. Whether as voters, or as those who availed themselves to represent the interests of their communities as political party or independent candidates, South Africans contributed to this collective undertaking.
This success is a tribute to the commitment of our people to defend the gains and principles of living in an electoral democracy.
We are eternally grateful for their participation and, in some instances, for their patience when the process moved at a pace slower than we would have liked.
We recognise that voting is not always a convenient undertaking. It requires people to interrupt their daily routines, make arrangements to travel to voting stations and sometimes stand in queues.
For some, it requires overcoming physical, financial and other barriers. Yet millions of South Africans made the effort because they understood that the future of their communities is too important to be left to others.
We thank every voter.
We also recognise those who stood for public office. To the thousands of candidates who offered themselves for election, we say thank you. By putting yourselves forward, you accepted the responsibility of subjecting your ideas, leadership and political programmes to the judgement of the electorate.
To political parties, and to independent candidates, thank you for participating in this democratic contest. Elections require competition. They require different ideas, different political philosophies and sometimes profoundly different visions of what our communities should look like.
A total of 521 political parties and 636 independent candidates contested the elections, collectively fielding approximately 137,000 candidates across ward and proportional representation contests.
A total of 10,526 council seats were contested through the 2026 Municipal Elections. These comprise 4,485 ward seats, 4,340 proportional representation (PR) seats, and 707 district council seats allocated through the 40% proportional representation component.
In addition, 994 district council seats, representing the remaining 60% component of district council representation, will be filled through the election of councillors by local municipalities in accordance with the legislative framework.
It is precisely this diversity of opinion that makes democracy meaningful.
Before I go to the highpoint many of us might have been waiting for, allow me to state that the results of the voting station in Douglas, Northern Cape where activists for a particular political party stormed the station and destroyed ballot papers, will be subjected to a revote.
Section 10 of the Local Government Municipalities Act provides that if ballot papers in an election at a voting station are lost, destroyed or unlawfully removed before the votes cast at the station are counted, the Commission may allow a revote at the at that station on a date to be determined by the Commission. The Commission has determined that a revote must be organized in ward 3 Siyancuma Municipality for voting district Jabulani Community Hall. This is so, because the ballot papers cast at that station were destroyed before the count. In addition, the Commission has approached the Electoral Court as well as registering a criminal case with the South African Police Service.
Now for the top five parties in the 2026 Local Government Elections. The results are as follows:
- The African National Congress (ANC) received 30.89% of the vote and secured 3,164 council seats.
- The Democratic Alliance (DA) received 24.60% of the vote and secured 1,527 council seats.
- The uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MK Party) received 9.61% of the vote and secured 701 council seats.
- The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) received 6.25% of the vote and secured 505 council seats.
- ActionSA received 5.68% of the vote and secured 219 council seats.
Other political parties and independent candidates collectively received 22.97% of the vote and secured representation across municipal councils.
With regard to municipal outcomes:
- The African National Congress achieved outright control in 51 municipalities and is the leading party in 120 municipalities.
- The Democratic Alliance achieved outright control in 12 municipalities and is the leading party in 29 municipalities.
- The Inkatha Freedom Party achieved outright control in 5 municipalities and is the leading party in 19 municipalities.
- The uMkhonto weSizwe Party achieved outright control in 3 municipalities and is the leading party in 18 municipalities.
- Rise Tsantsabane Communities achieved outright control in one municipality.
Of the 213 municipalities, 72 councils have a party that secured an outright majority of seats.
In the remaining 127 municipalities, no political party obtained more than 50% of the seats and these are hung councils.
The percentage of Spoilt Votes is 1.84%.
We must never lose sight of the fact that political competition is not an invitation to hostility. It is an opportunity to persuade, to challenge, to interrogate and to offer alternatives.
The political opponent is not an enemy. They are a fellow participant in the democratic project, with whom we may disagree profoundly but with whom we share a common constitutional space.
This point was warmheartedly demonstrated by scenes outside a voting station in Pietermaritzburg captured by SABC News showing supporters of different parties, in their different colours danced together after the voting station closed.
Electoral Commission Staff
Our gratitude also goes to the Electoral Commission's staff, including those who joined us as expansion staff, who have worked tirelessly over the past two years to plan and ultimately execute these elections.
Behind every voting station that opened, every ballot paper accounted for, every result captured and every query attended to, there were people doing work that is not always visible to the public.
People worked long hours, often away from their families, in difficult conditions and under considerable pressure. Some travelled to remote communities, provided technical support, managed logistics, facilitated voter registration and education, and worked through the night at local, provincial and national results centres.
To all of them, permanent and temporary staff alike, we extend our sincere appreciation.
The work of running an election is often judged by what happens on Election Day. But the truth is that Election Day is only the culmination of an enormous amount of work undertaken over many months and, in this instance, years.
We are grateful to everyone who played a part.
I also wish to extend our condolences to the Commission staff member who passed away at a voting station in Mahikeng on Election Day.
Acknowledgement of partners and stakeholders
Our appreciation must also extend to the many institutions and individuals outside the Electoral Commission whose contribution made these elections possible.
We thank government departments and municipalities, the security services, the judiciary, the media, traditional and community leaders, civil society organisations, faith-based institutions, the partners, our service providers and the many other partners who supported the electoral process.
We particularly acknowledge the role of election observers. For these elections, we accredited about 6000 observers from 121 organisations and facilitated opportunities for peer review and feedback from counterparts across the continent and the SADC region. Their presence and independent scrutiny are an important part of building confidence in elections.
Democracy benefits from observation, questioning and independent assessment. We welcome these contributions because legitimate scrutiny strengthens electoral credibility.
Programme Director,
In celebrating this achievement, we must not create the impression that everything went perfectly.
We have said many times before that, as part of our quest to become the pre-eminent election management body, we must be prepared to learn from our own mistakes and ensure that we do not repeat them.
No institution that takes itself seriously should be afraid of acknowledging where it fell short. Equally, no institution should allow its shortcomings to obscure the considerable work that it has done well.
That confidence cannot simply be demanded. It must be earned, election after election, through competence, impartiality, transparency and accountability.
We therefore commit ourselves to remaining a learning organisation.
We will examine the experiences of these elections honestly and systematically. We will listen to the concerns of voters, political parties, candidates, observers and our own staff. We will interrogate our systems, processes, technology and operational arrangements. Where improvements are required, we must make them.
Our commitment to continuous improvement is not an admission that our institution lacks capacity. It acknowledges that the responsibilities entrusted to us are too important for complacency.
An election management body must never confuse competent experience with infallibility.
We must also recognise that the environment in which elections are conducted continues to change.
The integrity of an election depends not only on the mechanics of voting but also on citizens' ability to make informed choices, free from intimidation, manipulation and deliberate deception.
No election management body can undertake this is work that alone. It requires political parties, the media, technology platforms, civil society, academia and citizens to recognise their shared responsibility for the health of our democracy.
Mr President, Fellow South Africans,
There is another important dimension to the elections we are concluding today.
Local government is perhaps the sphere of government where the relationship between democracy and citizens' everyday lives is most immediate.
For many South Africans, the experience of government is not first encountered in Parliament or in a provincial legislature. They encounter it in their neighbourhoods, their streets, and the services they receive, or do not receive, from their municipalities.
This places an enormous responsibility on those who have been elected today.
To all those elected, congratulations for the confidence the electorate has publicly demonstrated in you.
The ballot paper has given you a mandate and a responsibility.
To those who did not receive the electoral support they had hoped for, we say that participation in democracy is never wasted.
Programme Director,
The ballot is a powerful instrument, but it cannot, on its own, repair roads, provide water, create employment or restore dignity to communities. Those responsibilities now rest with the people who have been elected and the institutions they will serve, working together with the constituencies that elected them.
For citizens, democracy does not end when the ballot is placed in the box. The responsibility to participate continues through asking questions, holding representatives accountable, attending community meetings, engaging with municipal processes and insisting that public institutions serve the public.
The right to vote and the responsibility to hold elected leaders accountable are two sides of the same democratic coin.
We must also remember that democracy is not simply about the arithmetic of who has the most votes. It is about the principles that govern how we live together despite our differences.
Fellow South Africans,
As we declare these elections, we do so mindful that Section 65 of the Local Government Municipalities Act (2000) provides that objections could be adjudicated before the declaration of elections, as the Commission has done. In addition, Section 65 (7) provide that the Commission adjudicate objections after elections which the Commission will do.
It is then my singular honour to hereby declare the 2026 Municipal Elections concluded as free and fair.
I thank you.
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