‘Elections every three years are tiring’: EFF blames low voter turnout for decline in Tshwane election support

EFF mayoral candidate for the City of Tshwane Omphile Maotwe has blamed low voter turnout for the party’s declining support in the 2026 local government elections, calling for local, provincial and national elections to be held simultaneously every five years.

The EFF’s mayoral candidate for the City of Tshwane, Omphile Maotwe, has attributed the party’s decline in support in the 2026 local government elections to low voter turnout, calling for local, provincial and national elections to be held simultaneously every five years.

Maotwe said the current arrangement of holding elections every three years was exhausting voters and proposed synchronising the different elections to encourage more people to participate in the democratic process.

She was speaking to the media on Thursday as vote counting continued, reacting to the EFF’s performance in Tshwane.

Earlier, the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) announced that 15.9 million South Africans had participated in the 2026 local government elections, while more than 800 complaints had been lodged by contestants by Wednesday night.

Deputy Chief Electoral Officer Masego Sheburi made the announcement during a media briefing on Thursday morning as counting continued and preliminary results began to emerge.

Voting has concluded across the country following special voting on Monday and Tuesday, and general voting on Wednesday.

About 29.2 million registered voters were eligible to cast their ballots to elect local government representatives.

However, some voting stations experienced long queues on Wednesday night, prompting the IEC to extend voting arrangements to allow those already in line to cast their ballots.

In Tshwane, the DA was leading with 34.54% of the votes, representing 171,337 votes and one seat, according to the preliminary results at the time of writing.

ActionSA was in second place with 22.4% and one seat, followed by the ANC with 20.09% and one seat.

The FF Plus had secured 8.13% of the vote, while the EFF had 5.67%. 

The MK Party was at 1.95%. Neither party had secured a seat at that stage.

Commenting on the results, Maotwe said service delivery remained the priority for the EFF at local government level, arguing that voters understood the distinction between municipal responsibilities and national political ideologies.

“Be the ideology. As I said to you, at the local government level you're talking service delivery. And what is service delivery in the municipality? It's the safety of the residents. It's provision of water, provision of electricity, provision of infrastructure, roads, sanitation, and so there's no ideology,” she said.

“But when you talk about ideology you are talking about a national landscape, where you need to decide the policy directive of the country. So our people are very knowledgeable and they know what differentiates local government actions from national [government].”

She said the party did not believe that voters' understanding of local government was responsible for its performance, instead identifying three factors that could have contributed to the low turnout.

“There's three things. There's low turnout. We must all admit there was low turnout. And what contributed to the low turnout? One, we as political parties need to agree - this thing of having elections every three years is tiring.”

Maotwe called for local government elections to be synchronised with provincial and national elections so that South Africans would vote once every five years.

“Let's synchronise the elections. Local governments synchronize the provincial and national government, so that our people go to the polls once every five years, not once every three years. That's number one. And that is why the EFF is saying "let's synchronise the elections.”

Her second proposal was the introduction of automatic voter registration, saying many people only became interested in elections when the campaign period was already under way, by which time they had missed the opportunity to register.

“Our people generally get the hype [late]. When the election hype is now high, and they want to go to the voting stations and vote, and by that time it's too late because they've been locked out because they have not registered,” she said.

Maotwe said the EFF had tabled a Private Member's Bill in Parliament proposing that South Africans aged 18 and older who had identity documents should automatically qualify to vote.

“For as long as you are 18 years, you've got an ID, you must be eligible to vote. And people must be able to vote, so that even if you decide on the eve of elections to want to vote, you are able to vote.”

Maotwe's third proposal was to make election day a trade-free day, arguing that some low-income workers might prioritise earning additional money on a public holiday rather than going to vote.

She said workers such as cashiers and petrol attendants could be tempted to work because public holidays offered an opportunity to earn more money.

“But thirdly, which is the most important one - well all of them are important - let's make election day not just a public holiday,” she said.

She argued that workers often delayed voting until after their shifts, only to return home to family responsibilities and other obligations, leaving them too tired to visit voting stations.

“But if we make election day a trade-free day, no shop must open, no restaurant must open. There must not be, like we did in lockdown, we have a total lockdown, a shutdown of anything that has got an economic activity in it. You'll see that the polls will increase.”

Maotwe said the three proposals, including automatic voter registration and synchronised elections, could help improve voter participation.

She also urged political parties to take responsibility for encouraging people to vote, rather than simply blaming voters for staying away from the polls.

“It's our duty as politicians to continue enticing our society and our constituents to say don't get tired of voting. These rights did not come on a silver platter. There were people who have died for this democracy, for this one man, one vote,” she said.

She further argued that election day should be treated as a day when people had no competing work or commercial obligations.

“Automatic voter [registration] is one of those. Number two, trade-free day. Let it be a total shutdown. No one must open a shop. No one must open a restaurant. The same way it is on Christmas Day, by the way. If you drive around on Christmas Day, there will be no mall open. Only filling stations and emergency services will open. Let's have a lockdown on election day so that our people can go to vote.”

Maotwe also referred to countries such as Australia, where voting is compulsory, saying South Africa should consider whether stronger measures were needed to encourage participation.

“In some countries, actually, when we're talking to countries in terms of this automatic voter registration, they said we must take it even beyond just automatic registration. We must force everyone to go to vote. In Australia if you don't go to vote it's a criminal offence. You can be charged. You can be locked up in prison.”

She added that South Africa should consider ways of encouraging citizens to exercise their democratic right, although she acknowledged that compulsory voting would raise practical questions.

“I'm not saying we will, because we're in prison, we don't have enough [prisons] in the country. But I think encouraging our people to go to vote means for them to have no other issue or obligation to do on the day of elections, just to wake up and go to vote.”

Meanwhile, the IEC is expected to brief the media at 6pm on Thursday, providing an update on vote counting, verification and the capturing of results.