Special vote applications open 21 September for the 4 November local elections

Applications for special votes in the 2026 local government elections open on Monday 21 September and close at 17h00 on 12 October, three weeks and a day later.

The special vote is the commission’s access route for voters who cannot physically reach a voting station, and for essential service workers and media personnel who will be working when the country votes. It also covers voters who can be at their voting station on election day but cannot vote at that particular station.

Election day is 4 November.

What the commission said

The Electoral Commission of South Africa briefed the media at its headquarters in Centurion on the finalisation of the candidate lists, where chief electoral officer Sy Mamabolo set out the timetable.

“On 21 September 2026, the commission will open applications for special votes, and the application period will close on 12 October 2026 at 17h00, with special votes meant to ensure access to the vote for persons who would otherwise not be able to participate in elections on 4 November,” he said.

Who qualifies

Four categories of voter can apply.

The first is any voter who cannot physically get to a voting station, which in practice covers people who are ill, frail or living with a disability that makes the trip impossible.

The second is essential service workers, the people whose shift does not pause for election day, including health workers, police officers, emergency responders and electricity and water staff.

The third is media personnel working on the day.

The fourth is the narrower case in the commission’s own wording, voters who can be present at their voting station but cannot vote there on the day itself.

The application window is fixed, and it does not move for late applicants. A voter who misses 17h00 on 12 October will have to vote at a station on 4 November or not at all.

The candidate lists are now final

The briefing also covered the close of the candidate nomination process. The commission has published the final candidate lists for the 2026 local government elections, and those lists show the African National Congress has no candidates listed in six municipalities.

That is a fact about the ballot paper a voter will hold in those areas, and it is worth knowing before the campaign reaches its last weeks. Where a party fields no candidates, the contest in that municipality is between whoever did file papers.

The commission has separately reported that more than 60 per cent of candidates across the country are men.

What it means for the queue on 4 November

The special vote exists to keep people who cannot travel out of a crush at a station, and to keep the people who run the country’s hospitals, police stations and power grid from having to choose between a shift and a ballot.

For everyone else, the practical advice is unchanged. Check your registration and your voting station before November, because the station on your registration record is the one that counts, and the commission’s own online facility is where that record is checked.

Local government is the ballot that decides who runs the water, the refuse collection, the roads and the electricity reticulation in your own street. It is the election with the shortest line between a vote and the thing that breaks in your suburb.

The commission’s next dated step is the opening of the application window on 21 September. The last one is 17h00 on 12 October.

Source: SABC News (website), Applications for special votes for 2026 LGE open 21 September