IEC Voters' roll for 2026 Municipal Elections closes on Friday
The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) says the voters’ roll for the 2026 Local Government Elections will close at midnight on Friday, once the election date is officially proclaimed by the Minister of Cooperative Governance.
According to the IEC, 2.1 million new voters have been added to the voters' roll since the 2024 elections, bringing the total number of registered voters to more than 29 million.
The Commission briefed the media on Monday following the voter registration weekend drive, which saw more than 291,000 first-time voters register
KwaZulu-Natal recorded the highest number of registrations, followed by Gauteng and the Eastern Cape.
Women remain the majority of registered voters, accounting for 56% of the voters' roll. Of the 291,000 new registrations, 50% were women.
"The Commission advises eligible voters who were unable to visit a registration station during the registration weekends to make use of the Online Voter Registration portal before the proclamation on Friday, 7 August," said IEC Chief Electoral Officer Sy Mamabolo.
Mamabolo said the two voter registration weekends, held in June and August 2026, resulted in 754,332 new voter registrations.
"This is despite the fact that we regretfully removed 884,000 voters from the roll, owing mainly to mortality, which is estimated at 34,000 people per month," he explained.
WhatsApp registration
Meanwhile, the IEC announced the introduction of voter registration via WhatsApp as it seeks to leverage a platform used daily by millions of South Africans to encourage more people to register for the polls.
The Commission said the platform uses secure identity verification measures, including OTP authentication, ID document uploads, address verification, and voting station confirmation, to protect the integrity of the voters’ roll.
"The platform provides an intuitive, convenient, and mobile-friendly way to register or update voter details, given the ubiquitous nature of WhatsApp," Mamabolo added.
