ANC and DA Neck-and-Neck in 2026 Elections as Shock Results Emerge Across South Africa

The African National Congress (ANC) and the Democratic Alliance (DA) are in an early close race in South Africa’s 2026 Local Government Elections, according to preliminary results that are still coming in from polling districts all throughout the nation.

According to the most recent results, the ANC continues to hold a slim national advantage, but as more votes are tabulated, the DA is applying pressure on the ruling party.

After more over 26,600 votes were counted, the ANC initially had 34.37% of the vote, according to SABC News. The Freedom Front Plus (FF+) came in third with 8.79%, followed closely by the DA with 33.58%.

Ward 3 of the Kamiesberg Municipality in the Northern Cape was one of the ANC’s first notable successes. In the 2026 election results, the party won its first council seat with 52.54% of the vote.

But as the counting continues, the national picture has continued to shift. With around 28% of the votes counted, the ANC had about 32%, while the DA had about 28%, according to a Reuters report on Thursday morning.

The shifting numbers highlight the need for caution when interpreting early election results. The final allocation of votes may alter once counting is finished because more voting districts are still being processed.

Attention has also been drawn to the South African Communist Party (SACP), which is running independently after severing ties with the ANC, its long-time alliance partner. The party had risen to sixth place nationally in the preliminary results, ahead of a number of well-known political parties, according to SABC News.

In the meantime, the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) has verified that 15.9 million voters cast ballots in both regular and extraordinary elections. Participation was open to about 29.2 million registered voters.

Additionally, the commission is handling over 800 complaints that political candidates have filed. The majority of complaints, according to Deputy Chief Electoral Officer Masego Sheburi, had to do with the behaviour of voting station employees and claims that party agents had been kept from seeing the voting and counting processes. At the time of the briefing, there were about 106 outstanding complaints.

Objections to election results must be filed by Friday, November 6 at 5 p.m., according to the IEC. If the outstanding objections have been resolved, the commission is anticipated to release the final results over the weekend.

The ANC’s ability to hold onto its advantage and the DA’s and other opposition parties’ potential to gain ground are the key concerns as the counting process proceeds.

For the time being, South Africans won’t be able to see the country’s new local political environment until the IEC makes its final statement.

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