Analysis of Municipal by-election results
I have done an analysis of trends in the results of by-elections conducted from the time of the 2021 Local Government elections to the end of February 2026. I have used two datasets obtained from the website of the Independent Electoral Commission, namely:
-- A “Winners” report; that is, an analysis of trends in wards, focusing on the margins of the winning political parties; distinguishing between the outcomes during the 2021 Local Government elections in wards where by-elections were since conducted, versus the results of the said by-elections.
-- A “Votes” report; that is, an analysis of trends in the number of votes casted on political parties participating in the different by-elections since the 2021 local government elections.
Let’s start with the number of by-elections won by each of the major political groupings in SA, over the period 2021 until February 2026.

