The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) says a record number of candidates have registered to contest the November 4 local government elections.
The commission briefed the media at its Centurion headquarters on Wednesday, where it revealed that 136,790 candidates are set to contest the upcoming elections, with thousands of local council seats up for grabs.
“An unprecedented 136,790 candidates have satisfied the statutory requirements to contest seats across the eight metropolitan municipalities, 44 district municipalities and 205 local municipalities throughout the country,” the IEC said.
“There are cumulatively 10,526 seats to be contested across the board. To put these numbers into perspective, in the corresponding election in 2021, and with an almost similar number of available seats (10,478), there were 95,427 certified candidates, compared with 136,790 in 2026,” the IEC said.
Chief Electoral Officer Sy Mamabolo said during the briefing that the commission had to contact political parties to determine the fate of about 550 candidates who appeared on more than one list.
“On 9 September, the commission issued notices to parties and independent candidates in relation to 550 candidates who had either been nominated as independent candidates and again by a party, or who had been nominated by more than one party.
“The notices implicated 203 political parties and 28 independents. The parties to whom notices were issued had until 11 September to exercise an election to retain the affected candidate on their lists of candidates or to replace them,” Mamabolo said.