Elections 2026: IEC declares ‘war on long queues’ ahead of polls

The Electoral Commission has declared “a war on long queues” as 29.2-million registered South Africans get an opportunity to elect new municipal councils on Wednesday.

Voting started at 7am at 23,696 voting stations and closes at 9pm, giving voters 14 hours to cast their ballots.

The commission has deployed 188,000 officials across the country, an average of almost eight officials per voting station.

Each station serves an average of about 1,232 registered voters, although voter numbers vary considerably between rural stations and densely populated urban voting districts.

IEC chairperson Mosotho Moepya urged voters to check their registration details and voters’ roll sequence numbers before leaving home.

“We do not wish to see people standing in long queues unnecessarily,” Moepya said.

“We have taken these measures to ensure that there is a war on long queues tomorrow.”

The sequence number shows officials where a voter appears on the certified voters’ roll. Providing it could reduce the time officials spend searching through the roll before issuing ballot papers.

More than 1.2m special voters outstanding

Election-day queues could still include some of the 1.23-million people who applied for special votes but failed to cast them on Monday and Tuesday.

The IEC approved approximately 2.66-million special-vote applications but recorded only 1,425,942 ballots, leaving about 46% of approved applicants unaccounted for.

Those who did not cast special votes may still vote at their registered stations on Wednesday, provided IEC records do not show that they have already voted.

Municipal voters will receive either two or three ballot papers. Metropolitan voters receive ward and proportional-representation ballots, while voters in local municipalities also receive a district council ballot.

Officials must verify each voter, mark the voters’ roll, ink the voter’s thumb, stamp the ballot papers and explain how they must be completed.

The number of ballot papers and the speed of voter verification could therefore determine whether Moepya wins his promised war.

Queues fell before 2024 setback

Historical IEC research shows that South Africa had steadily shortened its voting queues before the 2024 national elections reversed some of those gains.

Voters waited an average of 52 minutes in 1999, the first national election after the adoption of the Constitution. The national average declined to 23 minutes in 2000 before rising to 42 minutes in 2004.

It fell to 34 minutes in 2009, 23 minutes in 2011 and 25 minutes in 2014. The average dropped to 17 minutes in 2016, 16 minutes in 2019 and a record low of 14 minutes during the 2021 municipal elections.

In 2021, about 77% of surveyed voters waited no longer than 15 minutes. Another 15% waited between 16 and 30 minutes, while 7% waited longer than half an hour.

But the proportion waiting 15 minutes or less dropped from 76% in 2019 to 60% during the 2024 national elections.

Lessons from 2024

African Union observers described the 2024 election as a day marked by long queues, particularly in townships and densely populated urban areas.

The mission linked the delays to voter-management device failures, late openings, slow manual searches and the additional third ballot.

Most stations observed by the mission continued processing voters beyond the 9pm closing time, with some voting extending into the early hours of the following morning.

Wednesday’s first test will come at opening time. Only about 90% of stations opened by 7am during the 2021 municipal elections, although the remainder opened by 9am.

Every voter inside the station boundary by 9pm must be allowed to vote, even if officials only process that ballot after closing time. The length of Wednesday’s final queues will determine when counting can begin.