CENTURION, Wednesday 2 September 2026 — The Electoral Commission has received 142,072 candidate nominations for South Africa’s 2026 local government elections, a roughly 43% increase from 2021 as parties and independents compete for 10,526 council seats nationwide.
IEC chairperson Mosotho Moepya announced the figures during an election briefing in Centurion on Wednesday afternoon, after nominations closed at 17:00 on Friday, 28 August.
The number represents a sharp increase from approximately 99,000 nominations submitted for the 2021 municipal elections.
According to figures released at the briefing, political parties nominated 40,241 candidates for proportional-representation seats and 100,856 candidates for ward contests.
A further 975 independent candidates were nominated to contest wards.
The commission said 299 political parties and 127 independent candidates used its Online Candidate Nomination System, while another 205 parties and 634 independents lodged nominations manually through IEC offices.
The figures describe submissions received rather than the final certified field of candidates.
The IEC must still scrutinise nominations to determine whether candidates and parties have complied with the requirements of the Municipal Electoral Act and the election timetable.
Final candidate lists are scheduled to be published on 16 September, followed by certificates of candidacy on 25 September.
The 4 November election will determine control of South Africa’s 257 municipalities, including the eight metropolitan municipalities where fragmented voting patterns and coalition governments have made candidate strength and party organisation increasingly important.
The nomination figures emerge as the ANC faces a separate dispute over incomplete submissions in parts of the Eastern Cape.
The IEC has already said it will not allow political parties or independent candidates another opportunity to add candidates after last Friday’s deadline and has rejected the ANC’s claim that technical problems with the commission’s system prevented it from completing some submissions.
The ANC issue is potentially more consequential than the national rise in candidate numbers because missing ward or proportional-representation lists could prevent the party from competing for certain seats.
Mzansi Political Safari has previously reported on the IEC’s refusal to reopen nominations and the potential impact on ANC contests in Eastern Cape municipalities.
Wednesday’s national figures nevertheless show that participation in the 2026 municipal contest has expanded substantially compared with the previous election.
The scale of that increase will become clearer once the IEC completes its scrutiny process and publishes the certified candidate lists on 16 September.
