Address by the Chief Electoral Officer of the Electoral Commission Of South Africa at the conclusion of the 2026 Local Government Elections
Good evening.
A national event such as this must surely impel us to ask a question, what does it mean for a person to go and queue at the voting station and cast a ballot. It appears that the act of voting is not merely about expressing an electoral choice. The act of voting represents something much deeper. Voting is a practical expression of our vaunted constitutional rights in section 19. Voting in a democratic election is therefore an expression of our common citizenship. Voting is rooted in our common nationhood but also in our individualized personhood.
Albie Sachs speaking through a judgement captures the essence of this instance of constitutional affirmation in the following words:
“the vote of each and every citizen is a badge of dignity and personhood. Quite literally, it says that everybody counts.”
Albie Sachs goes further to elucidate this point when he says:
“That in country of great inequality such as South Africa, the right to vote declares that we all belong to the same nation and that our destinies are intertwined in a single interactive polity.”
This event to declare the results of the 2026 local government election should be seen as the culmination point of a constitutional process to vindicate the personhood of citizens in a single interactive polity. Therefore, the operational efficiencies and the pursuit for electoral excellence are not an abstraction from constitutional context. Rather, these endeavors seek to give substance and meaning to the personhood of every voter and thereby affixing their badges of dignity.
The conclusion of the 2026 Local Government Elections provides an important opportunity for the Electoral Commission to provide an account, not only for the voting process, but also for the operational capacity, technological infrastructure, human resources and institutional systems that made these elections possible.
An election of this magnitude is one of the most complex operations undertaken by any public institution. It requires the coordination of thousands of activities, the deployment of substantial human capital and material resources, the integration of sophisticated technological systems, the management of extensive logistical operations and the application of rigorous administrative controls.
All these activities must converge and coalesce within a defined electoral timetable, under the scrutiny of the Electoral Court, political contestants, the media, observers and, ultimately, the citizens of our country.
Excellence in electoral administration is the ability to bring together people, processes, technology and resources into one coordinated ecosystem that delivers a constitutional obligation with precision, accountability and integrity.
Modern electoral administration is increasingly defined by the capacity of electoral institutions to harness technology to improve operational efficiency, strengthen oversight and expand transparency. For the Commission, technology is not an adjunct or a peripheral accessory to election administration. Technology is an essential component if not a hallmark of our electoral architecture.
The 2026 Local Government Elections saw us advance this architecture through innovations that improved access to information, enhanced monitoring and expanded the Commission’s capacity to coordinate electoral operations.
A pertinent innovation was the introduction of a Virtual Results Operating Centre (Virtual ROC). This innovation represents a fundamental shift in how we conceptualize access to information relating to the Election Day Operations.
Historically, access to the Results Operating Centre and its applications was largely associated with physical presence at designated results centers. In preparation for this election we recognized that modern election management requires us to transcend geographical and physical limitations.
We therefore introduced Virtual ROC that enabled political parties and candidates to access selected ROC applications and result reports through their own devices, irrespective of their geographical location. Applications such as the Issue Tracker and certain functionalities of the Results System were made accessible remotely for greater electoral transparency. Undoubtedly, this innovation expanded the frontier of electoral transparency.
From an operational perspective, this is significant for three reasons.
First, it expands access to electoral information.
Second, it facilitates more responsive engagement with issues arising on election day as well as the resolution of matters pertaining to the collation of results.
Third, it strengthens transparency by extending stakeholder access to the Commission’s operational environment.
We have effectively moved from a model in which access was largely determined by physical proximity to one in which technology enables broader and more flexible engagement. There were 1 149 users registered on the Virtual ROC with 85 active political parties and 328 active individual party officials. Cumulatively, 54 908 information requests were recorded on Virtual ROC.
Another dimension of the use of technology to expand the transparency envelope is the transmission of preliminary results to stakeholders as soon as they are audited. Media houses, political parties and other stakeholders instantaneously received results through an Application Programming Interface (API). Results were relayed on voting station by voting station basis as they became available. A total of 14.3 million requests for information were received through the API. This included the instantaneous transmission of election results data. The category of API consumers includes the media, researchers, ICT groups and political parties.
These measures represent the direction in which modern electoral administration must evolve. This electoral evolution would mean fewer physical constraints, greater accessibility, stronger flows of information and more effective operational oversight.
Voter Management Devices
At the heart of our Election Day operations are the Voter Management Devices, or VMDs. These devices constitute the technological backbone of our voting station operations. VMD’s are central to the Commission’s ability to maintain oversight over field-based activities taking place across the country.
The VMDs connect to the Commission’s central database through an Access Point Network, providing wireless connectivity between the data centre and the deployed devices. This architecture enables the Commission to receive and process operational information from voting stations, thereby strengthening the integration between field operations and central management.
The significance of this infrastructure lies in its ability to transform election management from a largely decentralized activity into a more integrated and information-driven operational environment. For the 2026 elections, the VMDs supported five critical areas of operational management. These are:
- Monitoring voter partcipation which was relayed to contestants periodically
- Monitoring ballot paper consumption through a ballot tracking application
- Recording staff attendance
- Reporting on opening and closing of voting stations
The scale of our investment in this infrastructure deserves particular attention. For these elections, the Commission brought an additional 16 000 Voter Management Devices into operation. Of these, 8 000 were newly procured by the Commission, while a further 8 000 were donated by the Gauteng Provincial Government from its existing fleet of devices.
With these additional devices, the Commission’s total VMD deployment increased to 56 000 devices, comprising the 40 000 procured in 2021 and the additional 16 000 deployed for these elections. This expansion materially increased the technological resources available to support voting station operations.
Our approach is to build an electoral management system in which operational decisions are increasingly informed by reliable, timely and accessible information.
Ballot Paper Production
Chairperson,
Electoral excellence is tested not only by the deployment of technology, but also by the Commission’s ability to manage the most fundamental materials required for an election.
The ballot paper is the instrument through which citizens express their electoral choices. Its production, quality assurance, distribution and security are therefore critical to the integrity and efficiency of the electoral process.
For the 2026 Local Government Elections, the Commission undertook an extensive ballot paper production programme, resulting in the printing of just over 100 million ballot papers. This was an undertaking of considerable scale, requiring detailed planning, coordination of production processes, quality assurance and distribution arrangements across the country.
The production programme was, however, significantly affected by a Constitutional Court order handed down on 15 October 2026. The order necessitated changes to candidate lists and resulted in approximately 28 million ballot papers being superseded.
The order of the Constitutional Court related to the 181 candidates of the African National Congress in six municipalities. However, ever conscious of its constitutional obligations, the Commission extended the same dispensation to a further 32 similarly situated political parties. This was done to advance fairness and the application of the principle of parity of treatment.
The operational implications of this development were substantial. The Commission had to accommodate the changes within an already established election timetable, requiring additional production, quality assurance, packaging and distribution arrangements. This placed considerable demands on our logistical and administrative systems. Nevertheless, the exercise illustrated the importance of operational agility in election management.
An electoral institution must be able to respond to developments that affect the electoral process while maintaining the discipline required to protect the integrity of the election. Our responsibility was to ensure that the necessary ballot paper arrangements were made in accordance with the applicable legal requirements, the judicial injunction of the Constitutional Court and the principle of fairness.
This experience also provides important institutional lessons about contingency planning, production flexibility and the management of time-sensitive changes in an electoral environment.
Fellow South Africans,
The ultimate purpose of all our operational preparations is to create the conditions for citizens to exercise their constitutional right to vote. Mindful of the erudite counsel of Albie Sachs we mentioned earlier, the Commission’s systems, infrastructure, personnel and logistics must ultimately translate into an accessible and functioning voting process to assert the personhood of all. In these elections, 15.2 million citizens participated in vote.
Every voter who successfully exercised their right to vote did so within an operational environment supported by voting station infrastructure, electoral personnel, ballot papers, technological systems and logistical arrangements.
The Commission recognizes that participation is influenced by a range of factors, and that the responsibility to improve accessibility must remain a permanent feature of our institutional agenda. We must continue to examine how our operational arrangements can make voting more accessible, efficient and convenient for eligible citizens in order to honour the lauded counsel we have reflected on.
We recognize that our measure of success must ultimately include the extent to which our systems enable voters to exercise their rights without unnecessary barriers.
Chairperson,
One of the defining features of the 2026 Local Government Elections was the scale of human capital mobilization required to administer the voting process. Approximately 188 000 electoral staff were deployed across 23 696 voting stations throughout the country.
This is a substantial national workforce, mobilized, trained and deployed to perform specific functions within a tightly coordinated electoral operation. The deployment of these personnel required extensive administrative preparation, workforce allocation, training, attendance management and operational supervision.
Each voting station represented a distinct operational environment, but all were required to function within the Commission’s national framework of electoral procedures and controls. Our election officials were responsible for managing the opening of voting stations, processing voters, administering the voting process, safeguarding electoral materials and facilitating the transition from voting to counting.
They performed these responsibilities in diverse geographical and operational circumstances. The successful coordination of such a large workforce requires more than simply placing people at voting stations. It requires clear responsibilities, standardized procedures, effective supervision and the ability to monitor performance. This is why our investment in technological monitoring, including the use of VMDs to monitor staff attendance, is so important. It strengthens the connection between workforce deployment and operational accountability. Technology may provide the infrastructure of an election, but it is people who bring that infrastructure to life.
In order to advance the professionalism of electoral staff it is desirable that a national regulatory framework be established which must define the qualities and management capabilities of the presiding and deputy presiding officers as well as arrangements relating to the use of public servants in the electoral environment. Such a regulatory framework should negate the need to grant experiential opportunities to the youth.
Results Collation Processes
Chairperson,
The results collation process is among the most important components of election administration. This process entails the aggregation of the political choices of the voters into an electoral outcome. It is the stage at which the votes cast by citizens are translated into official electoral outcomes.
The process requires the disciplined application of established procedures, effective information management, verification and the participation of authorized electoral stakeholders. The Commission’s results collation environment is designed to support the orderly progression from counting at voting stations to the capture, auditing and declaration of results.
Electoral staff painstakingly engaged this counting process with outmost resilience given the long hours of work as well as the sizes of the ballot papers.
Information Integrity
The information environment in which the election takes place is of paramount importance. Left unmitigated, the disinformation and related harms run the risks of impairing the proper exercise of the right to vote. As part of a coterie of measures to mitigate social media harms, the Commission expanded its social media team to twenty-five specialists covering different functional aspects such as digital media analytics specialists, disinformation analysts, graphic designers, and multimedia content creators.
The strategy on social media disinformation was to tackle it through the proactive provision of election information. Disinformation thrives in the context of ignorance about authentic information.
Furthermore, with the promulgation of the Disinformation Code of Conduct the Commission designated Real411 as the official complaints’ portal for complaints about disinformation on social platforms.
Operational Learning: Building the Next Generation of Electoral Management
Chairperson,
Operational excellence is not a destination. It is a continuous institutional commitment.
Every election provides an opportunity to assess our systems, measure our performance, identify operational constraints and strengthen our institutional capabilities. The 2026 Local Government Elections have advanced several important areas of our operational model.
We have expanded our VMD fleet.
We have introduced a Virtual Results Operating Centre.
We have strengthened our capacity to monitor voter participation.
We have enhanced our visibility over ballot paper consumption.
We have strengthened the monitoring of staff attendance and voting operations.
We have further developed the integration of information between voting stations and the Commission’s central operational environment.
Accountability to the Nation
Fellow South Africans,
The Electoral Commission is entrusted with one of the most important constitutional responsibilities in our democracy. As indicated earlier, that responsibility requires us to be accountable not only for the outcomes of elections, but also for the systems, resources and administrative processes through which those outcomes are produced.
The figures presented in this address illustrate the magnitude of the undertaking:
Approximately 56 000 Voter Management Devices deployed.
An additional 16 000 devices brought into operation for these elections.
Approximately 188 000 electoral personnel mobilized.
23 696 voting stations administered.
Just over 100 million ballot papers printed.
Approximately 28 million ballot papers superseded following the Constitutional Court order.
15.2 million citizens participating in the elections.
The introduction of the first Virtual Results Operating Centre.
These are not merely operational statistics. They represent the scale of institutional capacity required to administer elections across a country as geographically diverse and administratively complex as South Africa.
They also demonstrate why election administration must be approached as an integrated national operation, rather than a collection of isolated activities. The Commission will continue to evaluate its operational performance, document lessons and identify areas where improvements are necessary.
Local government elections 2026 were an unreserved endeavour to affirmation the personhood of all voters. We have succeeded in many aspects in this election but we have come short in others.
Morena boloka setshaba sa heso, o fedise dintwa le matshwenyeho. May God bless South Africa and her people!
I thank you.
