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The Electoral Commission (IEC) is now getting ready to host the Local Government Elections (LGE) next year as the term for municipal councils comes to an end in November 2026.
The Chief Electoral Officer for IEC Mr Sy Mamabolo said during a media briefing on Tuesday, 26 August 2025, in Centurion, that the Commission is waiting for the Municipal Demarcation Board (MDB) to finals the process of ward delimitation for them to be able to proceed to prepare for the respective wards.
As the term of councils comes to an end, Mamabolo said the current municipal councils were elected on 1 November 2021. This means that the current term will end on 2 November 2026, therefore; the general elections of municipal councils fall due between 2 November 2026; and the end of January 2027.
“The authority to set a date and call an election lies with the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs following consultation with the Commission. Consultations between the Minister and the Commission have commenced, but yet to be concluded,” said Sy Mamabolo.
The current municipalities reflected on the IEC’s website, are as the current configuration of municipal boundaries by the MDB, as soon as the MDB is done with its work, the IEC will update it.
“The MDB has indicated that it is about to conclude the process of ward delimitation. Crucially, the MDB will hand over final ward boundaries to the Commission at the end of October 2025. There will, however, be a residual of eighteen municipalities that will be handed over at a later stage.
The latter case relates to municipalities that were subject to requests for the review of external municipal boundaries. Engagements with the MDB are planned to agree on the precise date for the receipt of wards for these residual municipalities,” said the Chief Electoral Officer.
“Once the MDB provides the final set of wards to the Commission, the Commission will analyse its network of voting districts to ensure that they are geographically aligned to the final ward boundaries in preparation for voter registration ahead of LGE 2026 2027,” he continued.
Mamabolo said from 1 April 2025, the Commission has administered 39 ward by elections. The highest number of vacancies arose in Gauteng municipalities, with eight ward vacancies, followed by Eastern Cape and Western Cape, both with seven ward vacancies. KwaZulu-Natal had six ward vacancies. The overall average voter turnout for these by-elections was 41.58%.
“The Proportional Representative (PR) councillors’ vacancies can only be filled by the chief electoral officer declaring a replacement councillor elected. In the current financial year, that is April to August 2025, the Electoral Commission has replaced 149 proportional representative councillors. On average, the Electoral Commission replaces 377 PR councillors in a financial year,” said Sy Mamabolo.
