AI Deepfakes Pose Threat to 2026 Local Elections, IEC Warns

South Africa’s Electoral Commission Warns of AI-Powered Disinformation Threats to 2026 Local Elections

The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) has identified generative artificial intelligence and hyper-local disinformation campaigns as major threats to the integrity of the upcoming 2026 Local Government Elections.

Speaking at the “Disinformation Dialogue 2026: Countering Disinformation, Safeguarding Local Democracy” event in Cape Town on Wednesday, IEC Chairperson Mosotho Moepya cautioned that the municipal polls will likely witness a strategic shift from broad national misinformation to highly targeted ward-level deception.

“The primary challenge of 2026 is the rise of Generative AI and its application in ‘hyper-local’ contexts. We are seeing a shift from broad national untruths to ward-specific deceptions,” Moepya said. “As identified by SANEF, we expect a ‘flurry of deepfakes’ in these municipal elections.”

The dialogue, organized by the Institute of Security Studies in collaboration with several European diplomatic missions, focused on the evolving global threat of digital misinformation in electoral processes.

Unlike national elections, municipal polls create unique vulnerabilities for disinformation. The ward-based nature of local government elections makes them particularly susceptible to tailored falsehoods aimed at specific communities, which are harder to detect and counter on a national scale.

Moepya explained that election processes most vulnerable to manipulation include voter registration procedures, ballot handling, and results transmission. “Disinformation targets these points because they involve human elements that can be misrepresented,” he noted.

In response to these emerging threats, the IEC is implementing a comprehensive counter-disinformation strategy for 2026. The plan features direct-to-citizen verification tools that will allow voters to confirm ward boundaries and registration status through zero-rated digital portals, reducing reliance on potentially misleading third-party information.

The Commission is also establishing rapid-response pathways, connecting community radio stations and youth networks directly with fact-checking hubs to counter false narratives at the local level before they gain momentum.

“We’re shifting from a defensive posture to one of radical transparency,” Moepya said, describing the Commission’s evolving approach to combating disinformation.

One innovative initiative is the “News Sausage” approach, which encourages media organizations to demonstrate how election results are audited and verified, helping citizens understand the process and reducing suspicion and conspiracy theories.

The IEC will not hesitate to invoke legal measures against those who deliberately spread harmful digital disinformation, according to Moepya. South Africa has established legal frameworks to address electoral disinformation, though specifics of enforcement mechanisms were not detailed during the dialogue.

To enhance public confidence in electoral technology, the IEC has subjected its Voter Management Devices and results systems to independent end-to-end testing across all 23,292 voting stations in the country.

“We have subjected our VMDs and results systems to independent, end-to-end testing, ensuring that the technology used at voting stations is not a ‘black box,’ but a glass one,” Moepya explained.

The IEC chair emphasized that technology presents both opportunities and challenges for democratic processes. “It can be the tool that disenfranchises a grandmother in a rural village through a viral lie, or it can be the tool that empowers a first-time voter in a bustling township to verify their ballot,” he said.

Moepya stressed that protecting electoral integrity requires collaboration beyond the electoral commission. “The integrity of our 2026 Local Government Elections does not rest on the IEC alone. It rests on the fact-checker in Johannesburg, the lawmaker in Cape Town, the tech engineer in Silicon Valley, and the EU diplomat in Pretoria.”

The 2026 municipal elections will serve as a critical test case for South Africa’s democratic resilience in an era of rapidly advancing artificial intelligence and digital manipulation. How effectively the nation counters these technological threats could have far-reaching implications for electoral integrity across the African continent and beyond.

With artificial intelligence tools becoming more sophisticated and accessible, electoral management bodies worldwide are watching South Africa’s proactive approach to combating hyper-local disinformation as a potential model for safeguarding democratic processes in the digital age.