Academic explains why IEC results dashboard shows new numbers

Academic and political analyst Dr Sithembile Mbete has tackled disinformation on social media as some people made claims of “vote manipulation” after the Electoral Commission (IEC) updated the May 29 election dashboard results.

The commission on Monday had to explain why the dashboard showed different numbers of votes for parties compared with when the results were declared on June 1. This as many took to social media pointing out the differences in numbers.

The commission said it had updated the results dashboard to reflect combined totals of the national and regional ballots. This change ignited a wave of reactions on social media, highlighting a mixture of confusion, frustration and support.

Mbete, a political analyst from the University of Pretoria, addressed the confusion surrounding the dashboard update.

“In the 2024 election voters received three ballots. Two ballots contributed to the election of the National Assembly — the national and regional ballots. One ballot contributed to the election of the provincial legislature,” Mbete said on a Twitter thread. 

“During the election the IEC dashboard gave results for each ballot separately. The national ballot results were the ones displayed on the landing page and they showed the votes a party got from the national ballot. They didn’t include the total from regional ballots,” Mbete explained.

“The overall results of the election come from the combined total of the national and regional ballots. For example, the ANC received 6,459,692 national ballot votes and 6,238,676 regional ballot votes, which add up to 12,698,759 votes in the election for the National Assembly.

“The IEC has updated the landing page of the results dashboard to display only the combined national and regional ballot totals for the National Assembly. There is no longer the option to see the totals of the national and regional ballots separately on the dashboard.”

Mbete said it was not unusual for there to be a lag in updating the dashboard.

PA leader Gayton McKenzie took to X to question the IEC's seat allocation process.

“Dear IEC, kindly explain why did FF Plus get a seat at NCOP with one seat in Northern Cape legislature and Patriotic Alliance didn’t get a full seat with three seats in Northern Cape Legislature. Please explain the formula kindly,” he said.

ActionSA's KwaZulu-Natal chair Zwakele Mncwango released a video that has been praised for its clarity in explaining how seat allocations work. The video specifically details how the National Freedom Party (NFP) secured one seat in KZN.

Social media erupted with varied reactions after the dashboard update and subsequent political developments: