Follow-Up: With 98% Counted, ANC Leads South Africa Local Elections at 30.95%; 122 Councils Hung
South Africa's 2026 local government elections are nearly counted, with the governing African National Congress (ANC) holding on as the largest party but more than half of the country's 213 municipal councils left hung, setting up coalition negotiations. The Electoral Commission's results dashboard showed at 08:54 on Saturday, November 7, with 98 percent of votes counted, the ANC on 30.95 percent, the Democratic Alliance (DA) on 24.56 percent, the uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP) on 9.62 percent and the Economic Freedom Fighters on 6.26 percent.
Compared with the 2021 local elections, the ANC fell from 45.59 percent, down about 14.6 percentage points in its worst local showing, while the DA rose from 21.66 percent to about 24.5 percent. The MK Party, contesting local elections for the first time, took third place, performing strongly in KwaZulu-Natal.
The change is sharpest at council level. Of 213 councils, 122 are hung, 68 are controlled and 23 are not yet calculated. The ANC leads in 115 councils but holds an outright majority in only 48; the DA leads in 27 and controls 11, and the MK Party leads in 18 and controls three. In the metros, the DA took about 41 percent in Johannesburg, about 61 percent in Cape Town and about 33 percent in Tshwane (Pretoria), where ActionSA took about 23 percent, up from 8.6 percent in 2021.
The Electoral Commission is expected to declare the formal results and allocate seats on the 257 municipal councils on Sunday, November 8. Parties will then have two weeks to agree governing arrangements. According to the Auditor-General's 2024/25 municipal audit, only 39 of South Africa's 257 municipalities achieved clean audits, and governance and basic services such as water and electricity are seen as the top tasks for the new councils.
Source: Electoral Commission of South Africa
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：美国国会大厦（资料图）。The U.S. Capitol. (file photo)
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