IEC preps for first Wednesday in November 2026 elections, scraps e-voting plan
The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) says it is ready to administer an election on the first Wednesday in November 2026, should that be the date chosen by the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) Velenkosi Hlabisa.
As it currently stands, elections are expected to take place between November 2 2026 and January 31, 2027, although a final date has not yet been set or announced.
IEC Deputy Chief Electoral Officer Masego Sheburi said during a media briefing on Tuesday that consultations were ongoing.
“The Commission has commenced with the Minister. The Minister at the last meeting indicated that he was consulting with Cabinet. Planning scenarios have considered a number of things,” he said.
Sheburi explained that the planning scenario had considered several factors, including matric examinations, tertiary institution exams and weather patterns across the country.
He said the Commission had internally developed three possible scenarios but emphasised that the IEC does not determine the date of an election.
“Its role is to stand ready on the first day on which an election may be called,” he said.
“Because if we do not stand ready on that day, we are invariably taking away the decision-making from the Minister. So we stand ready to administer an election on the first Wednesday in November, assuming the election will be in November.”
He added that if the Minister determined a date later in November, early in December or sometime in January, the IEC would adjust its plans accordingly.
“So there are notionally a number of Wednesdays within that window period on which an election may be held. Each one of those Wednesdays has its advantages and its disadvantages,” he said.
”I think those are the things that are being considered before a decision is made on which Wednesday within the window period.”
Sheburi also spoke about voter registration trends, saying that outside of an election year, the voters’ roll experiences a “phenomenon of net decline.”
He explained that while people are continuously registered, the IEC cannot register enough to offset losses from deaths and people leaving the roll.
“We estimate this net loss to be 31,000 each month,” he said, adding that the recent registration yield of 305,000 was “a high yield, given that there is no election in sight.”
He attributed this to two targeted registration drives earlier in the year.
“We had two dedicated drives, first in February, when tertiary institutions and TVET colleges reopened. We targeted that community. In September, we appointed voter registration ambassadors in each of the tertiary institutions, including TVET colleges, who among the things that they needed to do was to register their schoolmates.
”And we see there is a yield from that, and we will persist with that approach in February next year, and again during the Democracy Month in high schools in the month of April,” Sheburi said.
Sheburi said that e-voting would be ruled out for the next General Elections of Municipal Councils.
“Just to state the obvious, e-voting is not on the cards for the next General Elections of Municipal Councils.”
“As it relates to electronic voting, we had in the past indicated that we are undertaking consultation processes across the breadth of the country to receive submissions from South Africans on the feasibility of electronic voting,” Sheburi said.
“The period for submissions closed on 30 September and we have received in excess of 200 submissions on our email address and on our online platforms. Similarly, the Commission has undertaken over 20 provincial stakeholders’ engagements in all nine provinces to get submissions from South Africans.”
According to Sheburi, key submissions indicated that “e-voting must be preceded by a cautious, phased and pilot-driven approach before we adopt electronic voting.”
He said many participants supported a “hybrid approach, where we retain the paper ballot alongside the introduction of technology in elections.”
He added that submissions also highlighted the need for strong nationwide voter education programmes on e-voting, accessibility for rural citizens and persons with disabilities, and significant public investment in digital infrastructure to enable wall-to-wall implementation of e-voting.
”And that there must be a robust legislative framework prior to the introduction of e-voting technologies.
“Going forward, we will consolidate the received submissions and once finalised, we will revise the draft policy paper which will be submitted to Parliament for consideration,” Sheburi said.
hope.ntanzi@iol.co.za
IOL Politics