The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) has moved to clear any confusion regarding its results dashboard update related to the National and Provincial Elections held last month.

‘The Electoral Commission notes the conversation and some confusion with the update of the Elections Dashboard last week to reflect the total number of votes from the two National Assembly ballots and final seat allocation (out of 400 seats) for the 2024 National and Provincial Elections,’ the electoral body said.

The electoral body explained that the change to the results dashboard is done to ensure that the ‘regional strength’ of political parties is taken into account.

‘In the 2024 elections, registered voters received two ballots for the National Assembly elections: 1 National ballot and 1 Regional ballot. [The] 3rd election ballot was for the provincial elections. Just over 16 million registered voters voted, casting some 31.92 million ballots across the 9 regional and 1 national ballot.

‘The Electoral Act prescribes t
hat for the calculation of compensatory seats, both national compensatory (N) ballots and regional (R) ballots are taken into account. Hence the demotion of N + R on the results dashboard.

‘This is done to ensure that the allocation of compensatory seats take into account the regional strength of all political parties – thus, meeting the proportional representation in general demanded by the constitution,’ the statement read.

Source: South African Government News Agency