Follow-Up: South Africa's IEC Formally Announces 2026 Local Election Results: ANC Leads the PR Ballot With 30.9%, DA Second With 24.7%, Turnout 51.8%
MIDRAND, GAUTENG, SOUTH AFRICA — The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) formally announced the final results of the 2026 Local Government Elections at 18:00 South African Standard Time on Sunday, November 8, at its National Results Operations Centre at the Gallagher Convention Centre in Midrand, Gauteng. President Cyril Ramaphosa attended the ceremony in his capacity as President of the Republic and delivered brief remarks, and the ceremony was broadcast live. The IEC results system at the announcement showed the proportional-representation ballot as follows: the African National Congress (ANC) led with 4,595,404 votes, or 30.9%; the Democratic Alliance (DA) had 3,682,819 votes, or 24.7%; the uMkhonto weSizwe Party had 1,462,166, or 9.8%; the Economic Freedom Fighters 929,119, or 6.2%; ActionSA 896,315, or 6.0%; and the Inkatha Freedom Party 697,421, or 4.7%. The results system put turnout at 51.8%.
The local government elections were held on Wednesday, November 4, with special votes cast on November 2 and 3, to elect local public representatives to 213 municipal councils across the country. Before the announcement, the IEC had received 197 objections to the results; according to its November 7 briefing, 54 objections had been dismissed, eight withdrawn and two upheld, and recounts had been ordered in five wards, with results remaining provisional until all objections were determined. In the IEC results system's most recent pre-announcement aggregation across all ballots, the ANC led with 9,156,368 votes, or 30.8%, corresponding to 3,236 council seats, followed by the DA with 1,638 seats, the MK Party with 765 and the EFF with 562; at that point 8,450 of 8,825 council seats had been declared and 134 councils were hung, with no party holding more than half the seats. Coalition formation in the municipal councils will now proceed on the basis of the announced seat allocations.
Source: Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：南非总统西里尔·拉马福萨（资料照片）。图片来源：Wikimedia Commons（CC BY 2.0）。 / Photo: South African President Cyril Ramaphosa (file photo). Source: Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0).
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