IEC Eastern Cape expects surge in party registrations for 2026 polls


The Electoral Commission (IEC) in the Eastern Cape says it is anticipating a large number of parties to register to contest the 2026 Local Government Elections.

The commission says it has already received many queries from potential political parties.

On Monday, the IEC brought its pre-election workshops in preparation for next year’s much anticipated elections.

The aim of the workshop is for contestants and political parties to be fully informed of the legal, administrative and procedural requirements for the elections.

The IEC’s Provincial Electoral Officer Khayakazi Magudumana says interest from young people in the elections is growing.

“Looking at the year 2024, we have had very high numbers, there was a pilot. We have embarked on as an institution across the country where we visited tertiary institutions and in the Eastern Cape. We did that solely in September and did register quite high number of students and l don’t know whether it’s the strategy we were not doing registration on our own as the IEC but we employed students to register their peers and they had come with very high numbers.”