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4h ago

Special Voting Ends After Mass Ballot Reprint and Multiple Security Incidents

The IEC will add 1,425,942 special ballots to Wednesday’s count, a move that exposes logistical strain, storage-security breaches and rising online misinformation.

IEC banner. Picture: Supplied.
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Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) tape and branding is seen outside a voting station in Pretoria East, 2 November 2026, during special voting before South Africa heads to the polls on Wednesday to elect councils for all district, metropolitan and local municipalities in each of the country's nine provinces. Picture: Michel Bega/The Citizen

Overview

  • The two-day special voting period closed on Tuesday with the IEC reporting 1,425,942 special votes cast and those ballots secured for counting with Election Day tallies.
  • A Constitutional Court order led the IEC to reprint about 33 million ballot papers, a late production run that delayed delivery and caused some Cape Town stations to open late.
  • Police and IEC teams investigated a string of security incidents including the theft of empty ballot boxes and stationery in KwaZulu‑Natal, raids or attempted access at storage facilities, and arrests for impersonation and photographing marked ballots.
  • Operational problems included transport shortfalls for home visits in metros, address and ward allocation discrepancies that left some Free State voters given one ballot, and an unfinished target of roughly 83,000 home visits in KwaZulu‑Natal.
  • With special ballots sealed for counting, the IEC and SAPS continue investigations and the IEC’s information‑integrity unit has logged 34 misinformation complaints while urging the public to report false election content to Real411.