IEC reveals whether e-voting will be used in the 2026/2027 local government elections

As South Africans gear up for the 2026 local government elections, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has confirmed that electronic voting will not be introduced next year.

While public consultations on the concept are ongoing, the IEC emphasised that the upcoming elections will continue to use traditional ballot papers.

“The commission has not yet decided on implementing electronic voting,” IEC officials said during a media briefing in Centurion.

“The current physical ballot papers will be used in the forthcoming municipal elections as there is no official national policy nor legislative framework on electronic voting.”

E-voting refers to casting and counting votes electronically, either via machines at polling stations or, in some systems, online. It aims to make elections faster, more efficient, and accessible.

While direct-recording electronic (DRE) systems allow voters to use touchscreens at polling stations, internet or remote voting enables ballots to be cast from home.

Controlled polling-station e-voting reduces cybersecurity risks compared to remote online voting.

E-voting has been a subject of debate in South Africa for years, with the IEC actively seeking public input to assess its feasibility and desirability.

“We urge all South Africans to actively participate in the ongoing public consultation on the feasibility and desirability of introducing electronic voting at some point in the future.”

Public consultations are currently taking place across all provinces to ensure an inclusive and wide-ranging engagement on the policy document, the commission said.

The IEC stressed that these consultations are intended to create a shared understanding of what e-voting could mean in the South African context.

“If you understand e-voting to mean remote voting, you’ll have apprehension about cyber attacks and foreign interference,” said the IEC.

“If, however, you accept that e-voting could also mean secured voting in a controlled environment, then the issues of cyber attacks are lessened because you can put in measures at a voting station to deal with those.”

Concerns raised during the consultations include potential inequalities in access and the need to ensure that e-voting transcends societal divides rather than accentuates them.

“People are worried about the controls that will be put in place to ensure that whatever type of e-voting does not accentuate cleavages of inequality in society but rather transcends those difficulties,” the IEC said.

While e-voting remains a possibility for the future, South Africans can expect the 2026 elections to rely on tried-and-tested methods, ensuring a transparent, fair, and accessible process for all voters.

R2.1 billion local government election budget

Beyond e-voting, the IEC highlighted its preparations for the 2026 elections, including ward boundary finalisations, voter registration updates, and training of election staff.

The current municipal councils, elected on 1 November 2021, will see their terms end in November 2026, triggering elections that must be held no later than 90 days after that date.

The IEC has set aside R2.1 billion for the upcoming local government elections, which are scheduled to be held between November 2026 and January 2027.

“At this stage, we do not feel major constraints in us delivering a credible election for the country. With the budget available, we will do so.”

The IEC also reassured citizens about the reliability of its technology following previous issues with voter management devices.

“The difficulty that we experienced [in 2024] was the malfunction of the voter registration app.”

“We have isolated the issue, rewritten the app, and commissioned external validation to give us assurance that the app will function as it is coded to do,” officials said.