South Africa has witnessed a staggering 43 percent leap in the number of candidates to contest in the upcoming local government elections set for November, the country’s poll body announced on Wednesday.
Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) chief electoral officer Sy Mamabolo told journalists that some 136,790 candidates have met the statutory requirements to contest the elections slated for 4 November.
“Out of these 136,790 candidates, 98,219 are nominated by parties to represent wards and 38,571 to represent parties in the Proportional Representation (PR) election,” the official said.
A total of 621 candidates are independents nominated to represent wards, he added.
The candidates will contest seats across the country’s eight metropolitan municipalities, 44 district municipalities and 205 local municipalities.
This is the first time the number of candidates has breached the 100,000 barriers since the fall of apartheid in 1994.
Only 95,427 candidates contested the last local government polls in 2021.
By contrast, the number of seats only increased from 10,478 in 2021 to 10,526 in 2026.
This shows that there is increased appetite in the race for municipal seats this year than previously.
JN/APA