South African parliamentary committees confirm election commission’s readiness
Fedir Kryshtovskyi24
October
2026
22:03
Three South African parliamentary committees, following an inspection of the headquarters of the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) in Pretoria, said it was ready to conduct local elections on November 4, 2026. Committee chairperson Mosa Chabane said lawmakers were confident in the commission’s ability to ensure free and fair voting. At the same time, the committees acknowledged that problems could arise during the electoral process, The Rio Times reports.
Additional ballots
The inspection on October 23 was conducted by parliamentary committees on home affairs, cooperative governance and traditional affairs, as well as the select committee on security and justice. Meanwhile, the IEC continues printing about 6.6 million additional ballots following a Constitutional Court decision that returned 181 previously excluded African National Congress candidates to the ballots.
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Scale of the vote
The elections will take place on Wednesday, November 4, from 07:00 to 21:00 local time; special voting is scheduled for November 2 and 3. More than 29 million voters are registered in the country. The vote will allocate 10,526 seats in the councils of 257 municipalities.
The IEC certified 136,790 candidates, and about 547 of 732 registered political parties are taking part in the elections. An eNCA/MarkData poll published on October 18 showed that no party in Johannesburg has support close to a majority: the Democratic Alliance had 35%, while the African National Congress had 21.8%.
