IEC handles more than 800 party complaints as counting continues
Ongoing: Elections Hot
The Electoral Commission of South Africa said about 106 of the complaints from political parties remain open. Most allege that party agents were stopped from watching voting and counting. The commission cannot declare final local election results before Friday 5pm.
Parties have until 5pm on Friday to lodge objections that could materially affect the outcome. Masego Shiburi, deputy chief electoral officer, spoke at the commission's results briefing. She said some objections are dealt with by the presiding officer.
By 9am on Thursday, 18 municipalities had finished capturing and verifying results. The commission said more than 23,000 of the 66,000 result slips were scanned into the results system. Nearly 23,000 results were captured, and more than 16,000 slips were independently audited.
The commission estimates that 15.9 million South Africans took part in the elections, including special votes. It registered about 29.2 million voters, with voting at 23,696 voting stations. Party representatives gathered at the national Results Operations Centre in Midrand as the first preliminary results came in.
Key facts
- Who
- Masego Shiburi (Deputy chief electoral officer, Electoral Commission of South Africa); Electoral Commission of South Africa (Election management body briefing the media on results counting); Results Operations Centre (IEC national results centre in Midrand)
- What
- The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) said it is handling more than 800 complaints from political parties, most of them alleging party agents were prevented from observing voting and counting; about 106 remain open. Parties have until 5pm on Friday to lodge objections that could materially affect the outcome, and the IEC cannot declare final results before then.
- When
- 5 November 2026
- Where
- South Africa, Midrand
- Status
- Reported