Hope Ntanzi|Published
The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) has approved 2.6 million special vote applications ahead of the November 4 local government elections, a 131% increase from the 1.1 million approved for the 2021 polls.
IEC chief electoral officer Sy Mamabolo announced the figures on Wednesday, saying the commission had received most applications online, with special voting arrangements now being finalised ahead of the elections.
“Special voting is an important feature of the electoral scheme, which ensures equal opportunity for voters,” Mamabolo said.
The application period opened on September 21 and closed at 5 pm on October 12. Special voting allows eligible voters who cannot vote on election day to cast their ballots in advance, either through a home visit or at their registered voting station.
The IEC approved 678,000 applications for home visits, compared with 507,000 in 2021, an increase of 33%. These visits are intended for voters who cannot travel to voting stations because of physical infirmity or disability.
KwaZulu-Natal recorded the highest number of approved home visit applications, with 137,000.
A further 1.9 million applications were approved for voting station-based special votes, a substantial increase from the 602,000 approved during the previous local government elections. This represents a 227% increase.
“These are for voters who can physically present at their voting stations but are unable to do so on election day. There may be a variety of reasons for that,” Mamabolo said.
Gauteng recorded the highest number of approved voting station-based applications, at 391,000.
Most applications submitted online
Mamabolo said 2.4 million applications had been received through the IEC’s online platforms, while 154,000 manually submitted applications had been captured across the commission’s network of offices.
The capturing of manual applications was being finalised, with the commission setting October 16 as its target completion date.
The IEC’s figures also showed that women accounted for 74% of home visit applications and 64% of voting station-based applications.
Voters aged 60 and older made up just under 80% of home visit applications, with those aged between 70 and 79 representing the largest group in that category.
Mamabolo said the analysis showed that home visits were predominantly used by older voters, particularly older women, while voting station-based applications reflected a relatively younger and more gender-balanced demographic profile.
The commission’s preliminary provincial breakdown placed Gauteng at the top, with 480,000 approved special vote applications, followed by the Eastern Cape with 401,000, KwaZulu-Natal with 348,000, Limpopo with 341,000, Mpumalanga with 232,000 and the Western Cape with 291,000.
The commission said the figures were based on applications captured at the time of the briefing, with the processing of manually submitted applications still being completed.
Special votes on November 2 and 3
Special voting will take place on November 2 and 3, two days before the local government elections.
The IEC has urged voters to confirm their registration and voting station details ahead of polling day. For the 2026 elections, voters may only vote at the station where they are registered.
Voters can check their details by calling the IEC’s toll-free contact centre on 0800 11 8000, sending their identity number via WhatsApp to 0600 888 000, or sending it by SMS to 32810 at a cost of R1 per message.
Voters would receive the name of their registered voting station and their sequence number on the voters’ roll.
“Providing this sequence number to election officials on election day will help them locate voters on the voters’ roll more quickly,” Mamabolo said.
The IEC is also continuing its broader preparations for the elections, with more than 66% of the 79 million ballot papers required printed and production expected to be completed by October 18.
The commission has secured all 23,696 voting stations and is finalising arrangements for temporary infrastructure at 1,005 stations, as well as support for 33 mobile voting stations.
The IEC is also preparing to sign a framework of co-operation with Meta, Google, TikTok and Microsoft on October 20 to help address disinformation during the election period.
Meanwhile, Mamabolo said the commission was not considering changing the election date despite a Constitutional Court challenge relating to candidates whose details were captured on the IEC system but not finally submitted.
“At this stage the Commission is not contemplating any change in dates or something of that sort,” he said.
“We’re working on the fourth and we will work with whatever decision the court makes.”
The local government elections are scheduled for November 4.
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