THE INDEPENDENT Electoral Commission (IEC) said that everything was in place for the by-elections that will be held on Wednesday, December 9, in 24 wards across 17 municipalities in all nine provinces.

Special votes will be cast on Tuesday December 8.

In the Northern Cape two by-elections will be held including at Thembelihle and !Kheis municipalities.

Both vacancies in the wards arose following the death of the councillor.

According to the Independent Electoral Commission there are 1 937 registered voters in ward three at Thembelihle Municipality, while there are 2 673 registered voters in ward three at !Kheis municipality.

Voters are reminded to bring their green barcoded identity document (ID) or smartcard ID and will be expected to wear a mask and observe social distancing at the voting stations.

Meanwhile, 72 wards in the Northern Cape have been handed over to the IEC as part of the ward delimitation process in preparation for the 2021 local government elections.

The IEC indicated that wards are delimited every five years in metropolitan and local municipalities for electoral purposes necessitated by changes in the number of registered voters as a result of migration as well as the enrolment of new voters on the voters’ roll.

The ward boundaries were calculated by the municipal demarcation board based on the number of councillors in each municipality, the average number of registered voters allowed in each ward and number of wards for all municipalities in the country.

The IEC stated that during the last local government elections that were held in 2016 there were 4 392 municipal wards in the country.

For the 2021 local there will be an additional 76 wards in the country, which brings the total number of wards to 4 468.

IEC chairperson Glen Mashinini stated that the handover of ward boundaries allowed the IEC to begin its final preparations for next year’s local government elections, including finalising voting districts and voting station locations and embarking on voter registration initiatives.