The Electoral Commission has officially declared councillors elected following the 2026 Local Government Elections, paving the way for newly elected municipal councils to take office.

The names of the councillors were published in the Government Gazette on Friday, 13 November, triggering preparations for the first meetings of municipal councils across the country.

What happens next?

Under the Municipal Structures Act, municipal managers must convene the first meeting of their councils within 14 days of elected councillors being declared.

These inaugural meetings are important as councils must elect their leadership and begin the process of establishing their new administrations.

The next phase also includes filling the remaining seats on district councils. While 707 of the 1,701 district council seats have already been filled, the remaining 994 will be elected by representatives from local councils.

Some seats still need to be filled

The IEC says five ward by-elections will be required.

Two follow cases where parties nominated councillors who won more than one ward seat, leaving one of those seats vacant. The other three follow the deaths of elected ward councillors.

A further revote will take place in Ward 3 of Siyancuma Municipality in the Northern Cape, following the destruction of ballot papers before they could be counted. Special voting is scheduled for 17 November, with voting on 18 November.

What about objections to the election results?

The IEC has received 1,708 submissions described as objections. Of these, 433 qualified as formal objections under Section 65 of the Municipal Structures Act.

By Friday, 252 had been finalised. Three were upheld and 249 rejected. The process resulted in 12 recounts and seven opportunities to correct captured results, as well as the revote in the Northern Cape.

The objections mainly concerned alleged counting irregularities, errors in capturing results, special votes and high numbers of spoilt ballots.

Who will make up the new councils?

The IEC’s figures show that women account for 33.6% of declared councillors, with women making up a larger share of proportional representation councillors than ward councillors.

The average age of councillors is 47.3 years, while only 10.8% are younger than 35.

The list published by the IEC does not yet include councillors for Siyancuma Municipality, where the seat allocation will be finalised after the revote.

The declaration marks a major step towards concluding the 2026 local government elections, although coalition negotiations and the formation of municipal administrations remain key processes in determining how many hung councils will be governed.