Tuesday 3 November 2026 · Updated 13:49
What We Know

Late ballots delayed special voting at 217 Cape Town voting stations

The IEC says every affected station later opened. It blamed the delay on reprinting 33 million ballots after a Constitutional Court ruling added candidates.

By Staff Reporter · Published · Updated

Empty voting booths and tables inside an IEC voting station hall
File photo: at an IEC voting station during the 2011 municipal elections. Photo: warrenski / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.

Special voting started late at 217 voting stations in the Cape Town metro on Monday because the ballots had not arrived, the Electoral Commission (IEC) said. It later said all of them opened and stayed open.

As of 08:00 on Monday, 217 voting stations in the metro had been unable to begin operations while they waited for special-vote ballots, the IEC said, according to News24. Figures released by electoral officials and published by The Citizen put the affected stations at 217 voting districts in 33 wards, from Kraaifontein, Atlantis and the City Bowl to Khayelitsha, Wynberg, Constantia, Delft, Athlone, Gugulethu, Philippi and Strand (The Citizen; Cape Times).

In its statement at the end of the day, the IEC said: “all affected voting stations opened and remained operational” (IEC).

Why it matters
  • What changed: some special voters in Cape Town could not vote when stations were due to open on Monday.
  • Who is affected: voters approved for a special vote in the affected Cape Town wards, many of them elderly.
  • What you can do: today, Tuesday 3 November, is the last day of special voting. Stations are open from 08:00 to 17:00, the IEC says. After today, you can vote only on Wednesday 4 November at the voting station where you are registered.

Why the ballots were late

IEC deputy chief electoral officer Masego Sheburi said the Constitutional Court’s ruling of 15 October, which admitted candidates who had been left off, meant that 28 million ballots already printed and delivered “were no longer fit for this election” because they did not include every contesting party. The commission had to reprint 33 million ballots, and Cape Town’s were in the final print run, he said (News24; eNCA).

Sheburi said printing ended on Sunday, and that the ballots then had to be packaged with their security features, including numbering and stitching (News24).

Western Cape provincial electoral officer Michael Hendrickse said the delay affected only the Cape metro. “I want to apologise for the inconvenience to our voters,” he said (eNCA).

What we know
  • 217 Cape Town voting stations could not open at 08:00 on Monday because special-vote ballots had not been delivered (News24).
  • The IEC says all of the affected stations later opened and stayed open (IEC).
  • 2.6 million people were approved for special votes nationally, 292,000 of them in the Western Cape (News24).
  • Special voting generally closed at 17:00 on Monday. The IEC’s chief electoral officer, Sy Mamabolo, said the affected Cape Town stations were given extra time and closed at 18:00 (SABC; EWN).
  • Officials will keep doing approved home visits today (IEC).
What we don't know yet
  • How many voters were turned away on Monday and did not come back. The IEC has not published a figure.
Sources and evidence trail
Update log
  • 13:00, 3 November: first version, checked against the IEC statement and the reports linked above.
  • 13:50, 3 November: added the Cape Times credit and Monday’s extended closing time for the affected stations.

Official source: https://www.elections.org.za/content/About-Us/News/Electoral-Commission-satisfied-with-the-conclusion-of-the-first-day-of-Special-Voting,-Monday,-2-November-2026/

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