Explainer: Why Some South African Voters Received Two Ballot Papers While Others Got Three

• The number of ballot papers South African voters receive in Local Government Elections varies depending on where they live
• Metro residents receive two ballot papers, while those in smaller towns and rural areas receive three
• The third ballot paper, unique to non-metro voters, is linked to a district council that oversees regional services

Byron Pillay, a Briefly News journalist, has spent a decade reporting on South Africa's political landscape, crime, and social issues. He worked as a newspaper journalist for 10 years before transitioning to online journalism.

If you walked out of your polling station during South Africa's Local Government Elections after having received three ballot papers while your friend elsewhere only got two, you were not being given extra. The difference comes down to where you live.

South Africa's municipalities fall into two broad categories. Metropolitan municipalities cover large urban centres such as Cape Town, eThekwini, Tshwane and Johannesburg. Everyone else lives in a local municipality, which forms part of a wider district municipality.

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What metro voters receive

Voters in metros receive two ballot papers. The first is a ward ballot, used to vote directly for an individual candidate to represent your neighbourhood on the city council. The second is a Proportional Representation (PR) ballot, on which you vote for a political party rather than a person.

What non-metro voters receive

Voters outside metros receive those same two papers, plus a third. The additional ballot is a District Council PR ballot. This vote determines representation on an overarching regional body that manages services shared across several local municipalities, including bulk water supply, regional infrastructure and long-term planning.

How proportional representation works

The PR system is designed so that no vote goes to waste, even if your preferred ward candidate loses. Instead of a winner-takes-all outcome, PR votes are pooled across the entire municipality.

Each participating party submits a ranked candidate list to the Independent Electoral Commission before the election. Once all PR votes are counted, council seats are divided among parties according to their share of the total vote.

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A party that earns 20% of the overall vote receives roughly 20% of those seats, filled by people from that pre-submitted list.

What you need to know about the elections

South Africans headed to the polls on 4 November 2026 for the Local Government Elections.

Voting stations opened at 7 am, and voters in the queue by 9 pm are legally entitled to cast their ballot.

Briefly News explained what voters may and may not bring into voting stations on election day.

Source: Briefly News