From the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC), through its official results system. ESP doesn't change any figure. Where we add IEC figures up (for example a ward's PR result from its voting districts), or calculate a percentage, the page says so.

No. ESP is independent. We show the IEC's published results and link to the IEC's own results site, results.elections.org.za.

It shouldn't: every number comes from the IEC. Where the IEC's own figures don't add up, we show them as published, list the problem on the "About this data" page, and don't show results that fail our checks.

The IEC releases results voting district by voting district as they are captured. We check for new results every minute, and pages show them within a few minutes. While counting is under way, results are provisional and marked as such.

Ward boundaries are redrawn before each local election. Each election here uses its own wards, so a ward number can cover a different area in different years. Ward pages show how the ward overlaps the previous election's wards.

Voting districts are redrawn between elections. Where we have an election's own voting-district shapes from the IEC (2021, 2019 and 1999 so far) we use them; 2024 uses the 2021 shapes, because it was held on the 2021 wards. Otherwise we draw a voting district with its 2026 shape where the same number still exists, and say so on the map. The results are always that election's own.

South Africa's nine provinces were created in April 1994, replacing the four old provinces (Cape, Natal, Orange Free State and Transvaal) and the homelands. The old Transvaal was split into PWV (Pretoria–Witwatersrand–Vereeniging), Eastern Transvaal, Northern Transvaal and part of North West. Soon after the election PWV was renamed Gauteng, Eastern Transvaal Mpumalanga, Northern Transvaal Northern Province, and Orange Free State Free State. Northern Province was renamed Limpopo in 2003. The 1994 pages use the names the provinces had on election day.

The first democratic local elections (November 1995, then Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal in 1996) were held before today's IEC existed. They weren't run by a national electoral commission: provincial governments ran them under the Local Government Transition Act, for hundreds of transitional councils that don't match today's municipalities. The IEC doesn't hold results for them and there's no single official set of results, so we can't show figures that meet our rule that every number comes from the IEC.

Voters who can't get to their voting station on election day can apply to vote early, at home or at their own voting station, on the days before. The IEC includes these special votes in the results of the voter's own voting district and publishes how many there were for each voting district, ward, municipality and province. There's no separate special-vote result: the voting-district results add up exactly to the municipal, provincial and national totals. In the 2024 national election some voting districts' totals describe the regional ballot rather than the national one; pages say which ballot the figures are for.

In national elections (2014, 2019 and 2024 in the IEC's results) the IEC publishes votes cast abroad as one extra area, "Out of Country". They count only for the national ballot, so they are part of the national total but of no province, municipality or ward, and the IEC gives no breakdown by country. Local elections have no voting abroad. For 2014 and 2019 the IEC lists fewer registered voters abroad than votes cast, so we show no turnout for Out of Country in those years.

Grey means there's no result to show there: results aren't loaded yet, there were no votes on that ballot, or the area wasn't part of that election.

Your browser asks you first. Your location is only used to look up the ward you're in.

Metros (like Johannesburg or Cape Town) are single councils. Elsewhere, local municipalities are grouped into a district council that shares some services. Local and metro councils have wards; district councils don't.

In local elections, voters in a metro or local municipality vote for one candidate to be their ward councillor. The candidate with the most votes wins the ward.

Proportional representation: a vote for a party on the municipal council. Seats are shared out so each party's total seats (ward plus PR) reflect its share of the vote.

PR seats are filled from each party's candidate list. The IEC publishes PR results per voting district, so a ward's PR result here is the sum of its voting districts (and labelled as such).

Voters in local municipalities also vote for a party for their district council. This ballot elects 40% of the district council; the other 60% are sent by the local councils.

Metros have no district council, so voters in metros get two ballots (ward and PR) and everyone else three.

Elects 200 of the National Assembly's 400 members from parties' national lists.

Since 2024 a national and provincial election has three ballots: national, regional and provincial.

New in 2024: elects the other 200 National Assembly members from each province's list. Independent candidates can stand on this ballot.

Elects the province's legislature, which then elects the premier.

Votes cast as a share of registered voters, as published by the IEC. Where the IEC's percentage doesn't match its own counts, we calculate it from the counts and say so.

People on the IEC's voters' roll for this area for this election.

The smallest area the IEC counts votes for. Each has one voting station and an 8-digit number, and lies inside a ward.

Taken from the IEC's certified candidate list (a PDF), because the IEC hasn't published 2026 candidates in its results system yet. This switches to the IEC's data automatically.

Seats as calculated by the IEC from the votes. A party with more than half the seats has a majority; if none does, the council is hung and parties must work together.

Votes cast before election day by people who can't get to their voting station on the day, at home or at the station. They're included in the totals.

Ballots that couldn't be counted for anyone, for example left blank or marked for more than one party or candidate.

The Municipal Demarcation Board redraws wards before each local election, so ward numbers and shapes change. Each election here uses its own boundaries.

Ward history on a ward page shows how today's ward overlaps the wards of the previous election. Those overlaps are approximate (by area), and votes are never moved between boundaries.

EskomSePush's own areas whose location is in this ward (2026 boundaries). They come from ESP's area data, not the IEC: the names are ESP's, and an area can reach past the ward's edge.

The person who holds the ward seat now, as listed by the IEC. It reflects any by-election since the general election.