KwaZulu-Natal has recorded a voter turnout of 48.7% in the 2026 Local Government Elections, exceeding the national average of 45.8%, the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) in the province says.
Provincial Electoral Officer Ntombifuthi Masinga on Thursday said the commission was encouraged by the turnout, although it had hoped the province would surpass the 50% mark.
“We are quite pleased with what appears to be a higher than the national average voter turnout in our province,” Masinga said during a media briefing, following the closure of voting stations on Wednesday night.
She thanked voters who turned out to cast their ballots, saying the commission was still awaiting the capture of outstanding results.
Masinga said at the time of the briefing, only 18% of the results had been captured, while 12% had gone through the auditing process.
She explained that auditing is a critical part of the results management process, as it independently verifies that the results captured on the commission’s system correspond with those recorded at voting stations.
“Until the results have been audited by an independent firm of auditors to confirm that what we have in our system matches what came out of the voting station, that result is not available on the dashboard,” she said.
She noted that political parties might appear to be further ahead in reporting results because their agents were encouraged to photograph results slips at voting stations and submit them to their respective party results collation centres.
However, unlike political parties, the IEC is required to subject results to an independent audit before making them available on its dashboard.
The commission is now focusing on completing the capturing and auditing of results, while political parties and independent candidates have until 5pm on Friday to lodge objections in terms of Section 65 of the Electoral Act.
Masinga said these objections could relate to any aspect of the electoral process where a party or candidate believed that the integrity of results from a particular voting station might have been compromised.
The commission has appointed a panel of legal practitioners to assist with investigating the objections received before the deadline.
She said the IEC would only announce the final election results on Sunday after all objections had been considered and resolved.
Following the announcement, the commission has seven days from the date of voting to publish the election results in the Government Gazette.
The election of municipal council office-bearers, including mayors and speakers, as well as representatives to district councils, must then take place within 14 days of the publication of the results. – SAnews.gov.za
Source: Original report at SAnews.gov.za.
