Social media claims that a municipal official voted four times during the 2026 Local Government Elections have been rejected by the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) as deliberately misleading.

According to deputy chief electoral officer of electoral operations Masego Sheburi, the voter went to the wrong voting district in her ward, where she was scanned before being directed to her correct voting district.

Sheburi said voting more than once was not possible in the 2026 Local Government Elections because voters could only cast their ballots in the voting districts where they were registered.

The IEC also rejected claims that election results in Wards 4 and 23 in the Emalahleni Local Municipality in Mpumalanga were being withheld because the number of ballots cast exceeded the number of registered voters.

Sheburi said the claims were false, as the official voter turnout in the two wards was just over 50%, well below the registered voter population.

The commission urged citizens to scrutinise social media posts, regardless of who shared them, and to verify information before passing it on. It warned that spreading false information could constitute a breach of the Electoral Code of Conduct and the associated Disinformation Code.

Meanwhile, the IEC reported that 91% of the results from the 2026 Local Government Elections had been completed nationally as at 17:00 today, November 6.

The commission is expecting 66 073 result slips from 23 696 voting stations.

At municipal level, 150 of the 213 municipalities, excluding the 44 district councils, had complete results. All municipalities in the Northern Cape had also completed their results.

Sheburi said most of the outstanding results were in metropolitan municipal areas, mainly because of the high number of voting districts in densely populated urban areas.

He added that the level of participation by contestants resulted in longer ballots and, consequently, longer result slips because of the number of candidates.

The IEC reminded stakeholders that results remained provisional until all objections and verification processes had been concluded.

Political parties, independent candidates, the media and the public were urged to rely only on officially verified results published by the commission.

The IEC said it remained committed to finalising the results as quickly as possible while safeguarding the accuracy, transparency and integrity of the electoral process.

Province: Results % completed

• Northern Cape: 100%
• Free State: 98%
• Eastern Cape: 95%
• Mpumalanga: 95%
• Western Cape: 92%
• KZN: 92%
• North West: 87%
• Limpopo: 86%
• Gauteng: 75%
• Total 91%

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