IEC sets out final steps before new councils can sit

The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) has set out what still has to happen before the names of newly elected councillors are published in the Government Gazette and councils meet for the first time, SAnews reported on Thursday.

Results of the 2026 Local Government Elections were announced on Sunday 8 November. According to the IEC, the remaining tasks lead up to the gazetting of everyone declared elected, and that list in turn allows planning for the first council sittings.

Party lists and double allocations

Under the Municipal Structures Act, each municipal manager must call the first meeting of their council. The window is 14 days, counted from the point when councillors are declared elected.

Before the names go into the Gazette, the IEC must finish two processes. The first concerns parties that won more seats than they had proportional representation (PR) candidates. On Monday 9 November the IEC wrote to these parties, and they had until 17h00 on Wednesday 11 November to add names. The Commission stressed that this was only for filling a shortfall, not for changing lists or swapping candidates.

The IEC warned that a party which did not top up its list could lose seats if the shortfall made it impossible for the council to form a quorum.

The second process involves candidates who could be given more than one seat. The IEC must tell the party, or an independent candidate in the case of ward seats, so that a choice can be made about which seat is taken. If no choice is made, the name is removed. When the removed name belongs to someone who would have held a ward seat, a by-election follows.

Ties settled by lot

The IEC said an election must give “certainty of outcomes”. Where ward candidates end up with exactly the same number of votes, the Municipal Structures Act says the result is decided by drawing lots. This happened in four wards this time:

• Ward 7, Mnquma Municipality, Eastern Cape
• Ward 14, Maluti A Phofung Municipality, Free State
• Ward 5, Ba-Phalaborwa Municipality, Limpopo
• Ward 17, Steve Tshwete Municipality, Mpumalanga

How many seats were contested

The IEC said 10 526 seats were up for grabs. Of these, 8 825 are local council seats, made up of 4 485 ward seats and 4 340 PR seats. The other 1 701 are district council seats.

Of the district seats, 707 (40%) were filled through the district PR ballot. The remaining 994 (60%) will be filled when local councillors choose representatives from among themselves. The IEC manages that process.

What this means for residents

New councils cannot be formally constituted until the final list of councillors is gazetted. After that, municipal managers have 14 days to convene the first meeting. Residents of a ward whose winning candidate is deleted from the list because of a double allocation could face a by-election. The IEC has urged parties and elected representatives to follow the final steps closely and meet every deadline so councils can be set up on time.

This story is based on reporting by SAnews.