Following a successful voting process on Wednesday, vote counting in the 2026 Local Government Elections (LGE) is underway.
Voting stations closed their doors at 9pm on Voting Day, 4 November 2026, with the Electoral Commission expressing confidence that all voters who were in line at the cut-off time were given the opportunity to cast their ballots.
“The counting, tallying and verification of votes continued throughout the night with the presence of political party agents, independent candidate agents and accredited observers,” Chief Electoral Officer Sy Mamabolo said.
Speaking at a media briefing on Thursday, Mamabolo highlighted the importance of the next stage of the process, which is the results capturing process, as an important phase of the election results management and transmission.
“It is important to underscore the procedural tenet of the counting of ballots, which is that counting happens at the voting station where the ballots were cast to ensure that every single ballot paper is accounted for at every station and duly recorded. This is an important watermark of [the] free and fairness of elections.
“After counting, a result slip is captured in duplicate in front of party and independent agents, as well as observers. The agents can record and make photographic images of the results slips. Similarly, the IEC makes an image of the results to facilitate retrieval by contestants where this may be required,” he explained.
From the voting station, result slips are transported in temper evident envelopes to the local capturing site of the Commission. Capturing involves stringent quality assurance measures, including double blind capturing of the result slips, scanning of the results slips into the results system, and auditing by independent auditors on the total population of results. Meaning that the audit is not sampled, but the entire results are subjected to this important assurance measure.
He said as of 9am this morning, 66 073 result slips were expected from the local municipality, metros and district council votes across the 23 696 voting stations countrywide.
“About 23 444 (35.5 %) of the expected results slips have been scanned through to the results system, and 22 983 (34.8 %) have been captured. Out of the results slips captured, 16 791 (25.4%) have already been independently audited,” he said.
The Commission further added that results from 18 local municipalities (7%) had been concluded at 9am.
“In a comparative election in 2021 at the same time, only seven municipalities were completed. The improved rate of capturing is in spite of the increased lengths of ballot paper, higher number of contestants and higher rate of voter participation,” said the Commission.
Call for patience
The Commission appealed to political parties, independent candidates and their supporters to exercise patience and allow the counting and results-capturing processes to unfold.
“The Commission further urges all candidates and political roleplayers to refrain from spreading unverified information or disinformation about election results, as this could create unnecessary tensions, incite violence and potentially result in damage to property and injuries,” Mamabolo explained.
The Commission has invited the public, media and political contestants to follow the results on the following IEC Platforms:
• Website: www.elections.org.za
• IEC Mobile App
The Commission also maintains regular updates on its WhatsApp channel (0600 88 0000).
The briefing came as political parties kept watch over results coming in.
READ | Parties keep close watch as election results trickle in
Meanwhile, government has thanked voters for casting their ballots in the elections.
READ | Government thanks South Africans for participating in elections
Source: Original report at SAnews.gov.za.
