South Africans are being urged to begin preparing for the 2026 local government elections, with the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) announcing that a nationwide voter registration weekend will take place on 20 and 21 June.
The commission said the registration weekend is intended to maximise opportunities for eligible voters to register closer to where they live and to broaden participation in the upcoming municipal elections.
Preparations for the elections are already underway, with several key administrative milestones either completed or in progress as the commission prepares to administer the polls once they are officially called.
The IEC said the voter registration weekend aligns with its planning assumption that it must be ready to conduct elections whenever they are lawfully proclaimed.
Following the registration process, the election date will be announced by the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), which is responsible for proclaiming the date of local government elections.
Once the date has been proclaimed, eligible voters will have until midnight on that same day to register or update their voter registration details.
The announcement of the election date will also trigger a series of processes that form part of the official election timetable. These include the certification and publication of the voters’ roll, inspection of the roll by the public, the lodging and adjudication of objections, and the submission of candidate nominations.
The commission emphasised that voters must register where they ordinarily reside because, unlike national and provincial elections, local government elections do not allow voters to cast ballots outside the voting station where they are registered.
This requirement exists because municipal elections include ward contests, meaning residents vote for ward councillors who represent specific communities.
The IEC said clarity on the election date is particularly important for people who may live or study away from home.
For example, students studying in one province but ordinarily residing in another need to know where they will be on voting day so that they can register in the correct location.
Preparations for the elections also involve the delimitation of ward boundaries, which determine the areas represented by ward councillors.
In December 2025, the Municipal Demarcation Board (MDB) handed over 4,305 wards to the commission, representing about 95% of all wards in the country.
A small number of wards remain outstanding in four municipalities in KwaZulu-Natal, namely eThekwini Municipality, Mkhambathini Municipality, Inkosi Langalibalele Municipality and Alfred Duma Municipality.
The MDB said the delays were linked to court matters involving some municipalities, but those cases have now been concluded, and the delimitation process has resumed.
The setting of ward boundaries also affects voting districts, which are the administrative units used to organise voter registration and voting stations.
According to the IEC, recent ward adjustments have resulted in the subdivision of 1,865 voting districts across the country, representing about 8% of the national total.
The provinces most affected by the changes are KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, which together account for about 45% of the subdivided districts, followed by Mpumalanga and North West.
Population movement and updated ward boundaries require the IEC to review and sometimes change voting districts and voting stations before each election to ensure they remain accessible to communities.
As part of these adjustments, some voting districts may be disestablished while new ones are created.
Fieldworkers will also conduct door-to-door targeted communication and registration campaigns to assist voters affected by boundary changes and help them update their details where necessary.
The IEC said more South Africans are increasingly using its online voter registration platform to either register for the first time or update their details.
Between November 2025 and March 2026, the commission recorded 260,205 new voter registrations nationwide.
Of those registrations, 128,113 were processed using voter management devices at registration points, while 132,092 were completed through the online self-service portal.
The commission said the increase in registrations reflects the impact of its online voter registration campaign conducted in February this year, which encouraged citizens to verify and update their details remotely.
The growth in new registrations is also helping offset the usual decline in voter numbers between elections due to mortality.
Alongside registration efforts, the commission has expanded its voter education programmes across the country.
Since the start of the current financial year, the IEC says it has reached more than 3.4 million people through thousands of community engagement events aimed at encouraging participation in the democratic process.
To strengthen civic education at the grassroots level, the commission has appointed 530 municipal outreach coordinators to conduct voter education initiatives in communities across all municipalities.
Meanwhile, civil society organisation Civic Root Advocacy welcomed the announcement of the voter registration weekend, saying local government elections play a crucial role in shaping the delivery of essential services.
The organisation’s managing director, Siyabulela Jentile, said municipal governments are responsible for services such as water, sanitation, roads, housing and local economic development.
Jentile encouraged eligible voters, particularly young people and first-time voters, to use the registration weekend to either register or confirm that their details on the voters’ roll are correct.
The IEC also cautioned members of the public about fake websites impersonating the commission’s official online registration platform.
It warned that some fraudulent websites attempt to collect personal information such as identity numbers, phone numbers and residential addresses from unsuspecting users.
