Political parties have begun examining the Electoral Commission’s election results system as the country prepares for local government elections later this year.

The commission opened its results platform to scrutiny on Monday, allowing ICT experts from four political parties to assess the system’s security and reliability. The review runs until 12 October.

The African Christian Democratic Party, African National Congress, Democratic Alliance and uMkhonto we Sizwe Party have each sent technology specialists to examine the platform, which captures and collates votes before assigning seats to contestants.

The commission says it has already completed an independent external audit of the system. The current exercise allows parties to verify the platform’s integrity and functionality themselves.

Political parties had until 30 September to register their interest and submit the names of their technical experts for the review process.

“The commission remains committed to ensuring that the 2026 local government elections are administered in a manner that is credible, transparent, inclusive and compliant with the law,” the electoral body said in a statement on Tuesday.

The commission has made the results system available for party audits during previous elections as part of its transparency measures.

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