IEC reveals over 2000 candidates missed deadline for local elections

The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) says 2 274 candidates from 45 political parties failed to finalise their nominations ahead of the deadline for the 4 November local government elections.

Political parties and independent candidates intending to contest the upcoming elections had until 17:00 on Friday, 28 August, to submit their candidate nominations.

IEC PROVIDES UPDATE ON CANDIDATE NOMINATIONS

During a media briefing on Wednesday, 2 September, the IEC revealed that cumulatively, there are 2 274 candidates who were captured but not finally submitted on the Online Candidate Nomination System by the set deadline.

“This phenomenon affects 480 PR and 1 794 ward potential candidates. The unique number of political parties in this situation is 45. The Commission’s position is that, in practical terms, these potential candidates have not been submitted to the Commission and therefore are not in contention for this election.”

The preliminary figures regarding the process to date are as follows:

1. Of the nominations received, 299 political parties and 127 independent candidates submitted their nominations through the Online Candidate Nomination System (OCNS),
2. A sum of 205 political parties and 634 independent candidates submitted their nominations manually at Commission offices across the country.
3. Of the 142 072 candidates, 40 241 candidates were nominated by political parties to contest Proportional Representation (PR) seats, and 100 856 candidates were nominated by political parties to contest ward seats.
4. Additionally, 975 independent candidates have been nominated to contest ward seats.

“To put the scale of participation into perspective, 99 000 nominations were received in the 2021 Local Government Elections. Therefore, 142 072 nominations were received for the 2026 elections, representing an increase of approximately 43% compared with the 2021 elections,” the Commission said.

HOW MANY POLITICAL PARTIES ARE CONTESTING?

According to the IEC, a total of 345 political parties are registered at the national level, and 227 of those have nominated candidates, representing 66% of the registered parties.

At the provincial level, 36 parties are registered, with 33 contesting (92%); at the metropolitan level, 61 parties are registered, with 49 contesting (80% of registered parties); and at the district level, 290 parties are registered, with 237 contesting ( 82%).

Overall, 546 of the 732 registered political parties are contesting these elections. This represents 75% of the registered parties in the Republic.

Registration Level	Registered Party Count	Contesting Party Count
National	345	227
Provincial	36	33
Metro	61	49
District	290	237