# South Africa says 78 million ballots are being printed for local elections

> An October 4 briefing said 78 million ballots were being printed for the November 4 elections, with 142,072 nominees for 10,526 council seats.

- Canonical URL: https://newsverum.com/en/news/south-africa-local-election-readiness-oct-2026
- Publisher: Newsverum
- Section: Politics
- Country: South Africa
- Published: 2026-10-04T14:04:24+00:00
- Updated: 2026-10-07T05:58:42+03:00
- Event / data period: 2026-10-02
- Other editions: [Türkçe](https://newsverum.com/tr/news/south-africa-local-election-readiness-oct-2026.md), [العربية](https://newsverum.com/ar/news/south-africa-local-election-readiness-oct-2026.md), [Français](https://newsverum.com/fr/news/south-africa-local-election-readiness-oct-2026.md), [Español](https://newsverum.com/es/news/south-africa-local-election-readiness-oct-2026.md), [Deutsch](https://newsverum.com/de/news/south-africa-local-election-readiness-oct-2026.md), [Português](https://newsverum.com/pt/news/south-africa-local-election-readiness-oct-2026.md)

South Africa’s inter-ministerial committee on local elections reviewed readiness reports on October 2. According to SAnews, the Electoral Commission was printing 78 million ballot papers for the November 4 vote; the nomination period ended August 28 with 142,072 candidates for 10,526 council seats.

The committee said eight election-related court cases remained pending and could affect final ballots in the areas concerned. The report lists candidate subcategories whose counts do not add to the stated overall total, so no distribution is reconstructed. The IEC’s 100% turnout reference is a planning target, not a forecast or realized turnout.

## Data

### Key counts in the election-readiness report

Ballot, candidate and seat counts stated in the committee’s October 4 briefing.

Methodology: Candidate subcategory counts do not reconcile with the stated total; only the overall count is reported. The 100% turnout reference is a planning target, not a forecast.

| label | value | unit | period | basis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ballot papers reported in printing | 78000000 | count | 2026-10-04 | observed |
| Total nominees | 142072 | count | 2026-08-28 | observed |
| Municipal council seats | 10526 | count | 2026-11-04 | observed |
| Pending election cases | 8 | count | 2026-10-04 | observed |

Sources: <https://www.sanews.gov.za/south-africa/imc-satisfied-local-government-election-preparations> · Download data: [JSON](https://newsverum.com/api/v1/articles/south-africa-local-election-readiness-oct-2026/data/election-readiness-counts?lang=en&format=json) · [CSV](https://newsverum.com/api/v1/articles/south-africa-local-election-readiness-oct-2026/data/election-readiness-counts?lang=en&format=csv)

## Sources

- [SAnews (Government Communication and Information System; Inter-Ministerial Committee briefing)](<https://www.sanews.gov.za/south-africa/imc-satisfied-local-government-election-preparations>) (Source checked: 2026-10-04; Published: 2026-10-04)

## Correction history

- 2026-10-07T00:52:43+03:00: German and Portuguese editions and translations of the data and correction explanations have been added to this article.
- 2026-10-07T05:58:42+03:00: Data classification corrected: measure identifiers and types now follow the dataset rules. No figure, unit or date changed.

---

Cite the canonical URL above. [Editorial standards and corrections](https://newsverum.com/en/editorial)