The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has announced that voter registration for the local government elections will take place over the weekend of 20-21 June 2026.
The commission said the registration weekend is being held “to maximise registration opportunities closer to where voters reside.”
“The intended outcome of the registration weekend is to facilitate access to franchise and broaden electoral participation,” they said.
Once the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs proclaims the official election date, eligible voters will have until midnight of that day to register.
The commission emphasised that voters must register and vote where they ordinarily reside, as there is no legal facility to vote outside of one’s registered voting station in a local government election.
“This is a necessary requirement as it ensures that voters vote in a ward election that has a relationship with their place of ordinary residence. In other words, voters vote for ward councillors to represent the communities in which they live,” it said.
They highlighted the ward delimitation process as an “important election precursor,” reporting that by December 2025, the Municipal Demarcation Board had finalised 4,305 wards, covering 95% of all wards nationwide.
This brought about the subdivision of 1,865 voting districts, with KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng seeing the most changes.
The commission said it will conduct door-to-door Targeted Communication and Registration (TCR) outreach to support voters affected by these boundary modifications.
The Electoral Commission recorded over 260,000 new registrations between November 2025 and March 2026.
132,000 of these were via the online self-registration platform, and 128,000 were through the Voter Management Devices (VMDs).
“The current registration activity is a crucial reversal of the net loss on the voters’ roll due to mortality. Ordinarily, voter registration numbers decline in the period between two elections,” they said.
“The gains in the numbers reflect the commission’s concerted efforts to encourage voter registration and to increase voter registration opportunities.”
Further milestones reported
A further milestone highlighted by the commission is the success of the Voter Education Programme, which has reached over three million people nationwide, and the appointment of 530 new Municipal Outreach Coordinators to strengthen civic education “at grassroots level in all municipalities.”
The Commission also reported that it is recruiting and training registration staff with strict criteria to ensure that candidates have not held political office, been members of a political party, or been convicted of serious criminal offences in the past five years.
Additionally, the Commission has partnered with the South African National Editors’ Forum (SANEF) to train journalists on electoral processes to ensure accurate reporting.
Transparency International recognised South Africa as the most advanced country in Africa for digital political finance disclosure in 2025.
However, the commission reported that the Multi-Party Democracy Fund has not received any contributions from individuals or corporate entities for the second consecutive quarter.
It warned voters to be cautious about fake websites that impersonate the commission to steal personal information, and cautioned against fraudulent recruitment notices circulating on social media.
“The Electoral Commission does not use shortened or rebranded links for official recruitment. All legitimate vacancies are published exclusively on the Commission’s official website: www.elections.org.za.”
