South Africa election commission details 2026 local poll operations

The Electoral Commission of South Africa said the 2026 Local Government Elections were completed and presented an operational account of how the poll was run.

• The Commission introduced a Virtual Results Operating Center (Virtual ROC), expanded access to ROC applications and result reports, and recorded 1,149 users, 85 active political parties, 328 active individual party officials, and 54,908 information requests.
• It said it deployed 56,000 Voter Management Devices, mobilized about 188,000 electoral staff across 23,696 voting stations, printed just over 100 million ballot papers, and noted that approximately 28 million ballot papers were superseded after a 15 October 2026 Constitutional Court order affecting 181 ANC candidates in six municipalities and then 32 other parties.