Municipal elections can be confusing because voters are not simply choosing one person or one political party.
Instead, South Africa’s municipal electoral system combines ward representation with proportional representation, meaning voters can help choose a local representative while also influencing the overall political composition of their municipal council.
The number of ballots a voter receives also depends on the type of municipality in which they live.
The ward ballot
One municipal ballot is used to elect a ward councillor.
A ward is a geographically defined area within a municipality.
The ward ballot contains the candidates contesting that particular ward. Candidates can represent political parties or, where permitted, contest as independents.
The candidate who receives the most votes wins the ward and becomes the councillor elected to represent that area.
This is sometimes described as a first-past-the-post election.
You are therefore voting for a candidate on this ballot rather than simply determining the overall percentage of support for a political party.
The proportional representation ballot
The PR ballot works differently.
On this ballot, voters choose a political party.
Political parties submit lists of candidates for proportional representation seats, and the election result is used to determine how many seats each qualifying party should receive.
The Constitution requires municipal electoral systems to result, in general, in proportional representation. It allows proportional representation to operate together with a ward system.
The result is a council made up of ward councillors and councillors elected through party lists.
Why are there two different votes?
The two votes serve different purposes.
The ward vote answers:
Who should represent this geographic area?
The PR vote helps answer:
How should political representation in the council be distributed?
This means a voter can legally choose a ward candidate from one political party and cast their PR vote for another party.
The ballots are separate choices.
Why do some voters receive two ballots?
Voters in metropolitan municipalities receive two municipal ballots:
- one for a ward councillor; and
- one for a political party in the metropolitan PR election.
The Electoral Commission confirms this two-ballot system for metropolitan elections.
Metropolitan municipalities include large urban municipalities such as Johannesburg, Tshwane, Ekurhuleni, eThekwini and Cape Town.
Why do some voters receive three ballots?
Voters in local municipalities that form part of district municipalities receive an additional ballot.
They generally vote in:
- the local council ward election;
- the local council PR election; and
- the district council PR election.
The IEC therefore describes these voters as receiving three ballots rather than two.
The additional ballot helps determine representation on the district council.
Are you voting directly for the mayor?
No.
This is one of the most common misunderstandings about municipal elections.
Even when political parties campaign around a named mayoral candidate, that candidate is generally not appearing on a separate public ballot for mayor.
Voters elect the municipal council.
The councillors who make up that council then elect the mayor according to the applicable municipal structure and council process.
A political party winning enough seats to command a majority can therefore usually elect its preferred candidate.
When no party has a majority, the election of the mayor may depend on negotiations and support from other parties or councillors.
What happens to the two votes afterwards?
Ward votes determine the winners of individual ward contests.
Party votes are used in the proportional representation process.
The electoral system then brings these components together to determine the final composition of the municipal council.
This is why simply counting how many wards a political party has won does not necessarily tell you how many seats it will ultimately hold.
A party can win fewer wards than another party but still receive significant representation through PR seats.
Likewise, a party that performs strongly in wards forms part of the broader calculation used to produce the council’s final composition.
Can an independent candidate appear on both ballots?
Independent candidates can contest ward elections in metropolitan and local councils.
PR elections, however, are contested by registered political parties through candidate lists.
An independent candidate can therefore win election as a ward councillor, but does not receive PR seats through a party list.
The key points
When you vote in a municipal election, you are helping determine more than one thing.
Your ward ballot helps choose a councillor for your immediate geographic area.
Your PR ballot helps determine the political balance of the municipal council.
And, where a district municipality is involved, an additional ballot helps determine representation at district level.
Those votes ultimately produce the group of councillors who will make decisions in the municipality for the next council term.
