MK Party and ANC Challenge South Africa Election Results

The uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party and the African National Congress (ANC) have lodged formal objections with the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) alleging systemic irregularities in the November 4 local government elections. The MK Party, which emerged as the largest force in KwaZulu-Natal and the eThekwini municipality, claims a system breakdown at the eThekwini results operations centre caused mismatches between electronic leaderboards and physical results slips. The party is demanding a freeze on result capturing in disputed areas and a forensic audit of the data-processing backend.

Simultaneously, the ANC submitted 35 complaints in Gauteng, with its Sedibeng region reporting over 30,000 questionable records on the voters' roll, including 1,500 voters registered to a single address. The Economic Freedom Fighters also alleged that the ANC's vote count was inflated by 163 votes in ward 9 of the Mbombela local municipality.

Despite these challenges, the MK Party is pursuing coalition negotiations to form governments in hung councils, though the Democratic Alliance has ruled out any such arrangement. Party leadership stated they are not yet preparing court papers but will approach the Electoral Court if serious complaints remain unaddressed. The IEC has processed 98% of the overall vote, completing counts in six of nine provinces. Final results are scheduled for announcement on Sunday, with President Cyril Ramaphosa expected to officially announce them on November 8.