Northern Cape leads election results capture as IEC says more than 60% processed - TimesLIVE

The Northern Cape is leading the capturing of results in the 2026 local government elections with 87% of results captured as the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) continues its counting, verification and auditing processes countrywide.

IEC chief electoral officer Sy Mamabolo said the commission was pleased with the steady progress being made with more than 60% of the 66,073 results captured by 5pm.

Providing a provincial breakdown on vote counting, verification and results, Mamabolo said the Western Cape was in second place with 69% followed by the Eastern Cape at 60% and the Free State at 64%.

Mpumalanga had captured 52% of its results while KwaZulu-Natal stood at 37%.

The North West and Gauteng were both at 35% while Limpopo was trailing at 23%.

“The electoral commission is pleased to report that the capturing and verification of election results are progressing steadily across the country,” he said.

Mamabolo said the commission salutes the thousands of men and women who are pulling out all the stops to ensure the finalisation of the capturing and auditing of results.

By 5pm more than 60% of the 66,073 results had been captured.

“The commission further reports that about 40,202 results slips have been scanned while 32,238 have undergone independent auditing as part of the verification and quality assurance processes,” he said.

Mamabolo said the measures were intended to ensure the accuracy, transparency and integrity of the results before they were finalised.

At municipal level, 65 of the country’s 213 municipalities, representing 31%, had completed the capturing, scanning and auditing processes.

The Northern Cape was leading in municipal completion with 21 of its 26 municipalities completed, representing 81%.

The Western Cape followed with 14 of 25 municipalities completed (56%) while the Free State had completed seven of its 19 municipalities (37%).

In the Eastern Cape, nine of the 33 municipalities had completed the process (27%), compared with five of 17 in Mpumalanga (29%).

KwaZulu-Natal had completed six of its 44 municipalities (14%), the North West two of 18 (11%) and Limpopo one of 22 (5%).

Gauteng was the only province yet to complete the process in any municipality with none of its nine municipalities having reached completion at the time of the briefing.

Mamabolo cautioned that the figures remained provisional until objections material to an election had been finalised.

“The commission remains committed to finalising the results as expeditiously as possible while ensuring that all prescribed verification and quality assurance processes are rigorously followed to safeguard the accuracy, transparency and integrity of the results.

“It is anticipated that the results collation process will be concluded by the weekend. The commission therefore urges political parties, independent candidates, the media and members of the public to exercise caution when interpreting partial results and to rely on officially verified results published by the commission,” he said.