Cape Town missing ballots: ConCourt ruling sees 33 million ballots re-printed
The IEC says the remaining ballots were printed on Sunday.
On the first day of special votes, Cape Town voters faced delays at some polling stations due to a Constitutional Court ruling, which saw 33 million ballots re-printed. The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) confirmed that the delays resulted directly from the court's decision to admit additional candidates from six municipalities.
Deputy Chief Electoral Officer Masego Shiburi explained that the original plan was to have all ballots in storage by October 21, 2026. However, the court's order meant that 28 million pre-printed ballots were no longer suitable as they lacked information about the additional parties. Consequently, the IEC had to re-print 33 million ballots in total.
Shiburi stated that the printing process at the City of Cape Town concluded on Sunday, but they are currently facing challenges with packaging these ballots with necessary security features, numbering them correctly, and stitching them into booklets of 100. Despite these hurdles, all remaining ballots for Cape Town have been stored in decentralised facilities and are being rapidly distributed to the affected voting stations. The IEC will provide updates on the reopening of the impacted polling stations in Cape Town.
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