IN THE SPOTLIGHT: ELECTION-RELATED LEGISLATIVE DEVELOPMENTS

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IN THE SPOTLIGHT: ELECTION-RELATED LEGISLATIVE DEVELOPMENTS

• 31 October 2026
• In the Spotlight
• SA Legal Academy

Since South Africa’s 2024 general elections, changes have been made to several pieces of legislation with the aim of improving the electoral process. However, there has been no tangible progress in addressing issues at the root of coalition chaos at municipal level.

Tabled in Parliament in August 2026, the Local Government: Municipal Structures Amendment Bill has been on the back burner of the National Assembly’s Co-operative Governance & Traditional Affairs Committee ever since members were briefed on the Bill a week after its formal introduction.

As SA Legal Academy has already reported, the Bill ‘seeks to provide a clear legislative framework for the formation of coalition governments (at municipal level) and to establish mechanisms to minimise … related challenges’. This is according to a media statement on the 29 July 2026 Cabinet meeting at which the proposed new piece of legislation was approved for tabling.

In that context, the statement referred expressly to provisions intended to:

• ‘promote stable and accountable coalition governance’
• ‘reduce political instability’, and
• ‘support the uninterrupted delivery of services to communities’.

A pre-tabling explanatory summary of the Bill referred to proposals:

• making it mandatory for a councillor appointed as a municipal office bearer to ‘possess the necessary experience, skills or qualifications’
• extending ‘the time period within which a local council must appoint its representatives to the district council’ concerned
• extending ‘the time period within which the first meeting of … (a) council must be called after it has been declared elected’
• prescribing ‘the time period within which a new speaker must be elected’
• extending ‘the time period within which … (a) meeting to determine … members of … (an) executive committee must be held’
• extending ‘the time period within which … (a) meeting for … (electing) a mayor, deputy mayor, an executive mayor and (an) executive deputy mayor must be held’
• prescribing ‘the period in which a (new) executive mayor must be elected after the removal of the (previous) executive mayor’
• prescribing ‘the period in which a mayoral committee must be appointed after the appointment of … (a) newly elected executive mayor’
• requiring provisions for voting at council meetings to include ‘by way of show of hands or secret ballot’, and
• prescribing grounds for removing a municipal officer bearer and the procedure to be followed.

Turning to the electoral process itself, possibly the most significant development has been the September 2026 publication of the Independent Electoral Commission’s counter-disinformation code of conduct for local government elections.

Immediately binding, as SA Legal Academy reported at the time, the code:

• ‘applies to all election-related communications, conduct and campaign activities by political parties and candidates, whether undertaken directly or through any person acting on their instruction, authority or for reward, both online and offline, and in respect of paid and unpaid content and communication’
• guides ‘those with political influence on the reasonable standard of conduct in guarding against and responding to disinformation that seeks to undermine electoral integrity and democratic processes by identifying measures to counter the risk of harm that disinformation poses to electoral integrity’, and
• provides for ‘effective measures, both proactive and responsive, to address the exigencies of disinformation in the digital environment, including … social media platforms and (the use of) artificial intelligence’.

On 14 October 2026, amendments to the municipal government regulations were gazetted for immediate commencement – among other things:

• further strengthening the procedures for dealing with disputed votes
• clarifying the procedures for dealing with special votes and marked envelopes, and
• providing for procedures to be followed in dealing with objections with significant implications for election outcomes.

With medium-to-long term improvements in mind, an Electoral Laws Amendment Bill tabled in September 2026 could well have implications for the 2029 general elections if passed, enacted and operationalised in time. As SA Legal Academy has already reported, the Bill seeks to amend the 1996 Electoral Commission Act in order to:

• ‘provide for the mandatory deregistration of unrepresented parties that fail to annually renew their registration’
• ‘insert a provision regarding the eligibility of registered parties to contest elections’, and to
• change the composition of the Electoral Court.

In anticipation of parliamentary hearings, the National Assembly’s Home Affairs Committee recently issued a notice calling for written submissions.

• Local Government: Municipal Structures Amendment Bill
• August 2026 SA Legal Academy report on Bill
• code of conduct
• September 2026 SA Legal Academy report on code of conduct
• regulatory amendments
• August 2026 SA Legal Academy report on amendments then in draft form
• Electoral Laws Amendment Bill
• October 2026 SA Legal Academy report

Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch

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