Swellendam Local Municipality elections

The following table shows the composition of the council after past elections.

Event	ANC	DA	Other	Total
2000 election	5	5	0	10
2002 floor-crossing	5	3	2	10
2004 floor-crossing	6	4	0	10
2006 election	4	3	3	10
2007 floor-crossing	3	3	4	10
2011 election	4	4	1	9
2016 election	5	6	0	11
2021 election	4	6	1	11

The following table shows the results of the 2000 election. ^[1]

Party		Ward			List			Total seats
		Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats
	Democratic Alliance	3,589	47.77	3	3,692	49.07	2	5
	African National Congress	3,393	45.16	2	3,433	45.63	3	5
	Pan Africanist Congress of Azania	423	5.63	0	399	5.30	0	0
	Independent candidates	108	1.44	0				0
Total		7,513	100.00	5	7,524	100.00	5	10
Valid votes		7,513	98.80		7,524	98.87
Invalid/blank votes		91	1.20		86	1.13
Total votes		7,604	100.00		7,610	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		11,319	67.18		11,319	67.23

In terms of the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution and the judgment of the Constitutional Court in United Democratic Movement v President of the Republic of South Africa and Others, in the period from 8–22 October 2002 councillors had the opportunity to cross the floor to a different political party without losing their seats.

In the Swellendam council, three councillors from the Democratic Alliance (DA) crossed to the New National Party (NNP), which had formerly been part of the DA.^[2]

Party		Seats before	Net change	Seats after
	African National Congress	5	0	5
	Democratic Alliance	5	2	3
	New National Party	–	2	2

The following by-elections were held to fill vacant ward seats in the period between the floor crossing periods in October 2002 and September 2004.^[3]

Date	Ward	Party of the previous councillor		Party of the newly elected councillor
19 March 2003	2		African National Congress		African National Congress
	4		New National Party[Note 1]		Democratic Alliance

Another floor-crossing period occurred on 1–15 September 2004, in which the remaining NNP councillor crossed to the ANC.^[4]

Party		Seats before	Net change	Seats after
	African National Congress	5	1	6
	Democratic Alliance	4	0	4
	New National Party	1	1	0

The following table shows the results of the 2006 election.^[5]

Party		Ward			List			Total seats
		Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats
	African National Congress	3,029	38.57	3	2,985	38.18	1	4
	Democratic Alliance	2,308	29.39	1	2,425	31.01	2	3
	Independent Democrats	1,891	24.08	1	1,972	25.22	1	2
	African Christian Democratic Party	430	5.47	0	437	5.59	1	1
	Independent candidates	196	2.50	0				0
Total		7,854	100.00	5	7,819	100.00	5	10
Valid votes		7,854	98.45		7,819	98.01
Invalid/blank votes		124	1.55		159	1.99
Total votes		7,978	100.00		7,978	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		13,334	59.83		13,334	59.83

The final floor-crossing period occurred on 1–15 September 2007; floor-crossing was subsequently abolished in 2008 by the Fifteenth Amendment of the Constitution. In the Swellendam council, one councillor from the African National Congress crossed to the Independent Democrats.^[6]

Party		Seats before	Net change	Seats after
	African National Congress	4	1	3
	Democratic Alliance	3	0	3
	Independent Democrats	2	1	3
	African Christian Democratic Party	1	0	1

The following table shows the results of the 2011 election.^[7]

Party		Ward			List			Total seats
		Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats
	African National Congress	4,336	41.19	2	4,490	42.58	2	4
	Democratic Alliance	4,270	40.56	3	4,359	41.34	1	4
	African Christian Democratic Party	683	6.49	0	686	6.51	1	1
	National Independent Civic Organisation	462	4.39	0	455	4.32	0	0
	Civic Independent	254	2.41	0	274	2.60	0	0
	Congress of the People	145	1.38	0	154	1.46	0	0
	Freedom Front Plus	129	1.23	0	107	1.01	0	0
	Independent candidates	182	1.73	0				0
	National People's Party	67	0.64	0	19	0.18	0	0
Total		10,528	100.00	5	10,544	100.00	4	9
Valid votes		10,528	98.99		10,544	99.12
Invalid/blank votes		107	1.01		94	0.88
Total votes		10,635	100.00		10,638	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		15,909	66.85		15,909	66.87

The following by-elections were held to fill vacant ward seats in the period between the elections in May 2011 and August 2016.^[3]

Date	Ward	Party of the previous councillor		Party of the newly elected councillor
4 February 2015	5		African National Congress		African National Congress

The following table shows the results of the 2016 election.^[8][9][10]

Party		Ward			List			Total seats
		Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats
	Democratic Alliance	5,865	47.59	2	5,916	48.30	4	6
	African National Congress	5,484	44.50	4	5,490	44.82	1	5
	Freedom Front Plus	260	2.11	0	247	2.02	0	0
	Independent Civic Organisation of South Africa	158	1.28	0	151	1.23	0	0
	Civic Independent	133	1.08	0	128	1.04	0	0
	Economic Freedom Fighters	106	0.86	0	110	0.90	0	0
	African Christian Democratic Party	103	0.84	0	101	0.82	0	0
	Community and Workers Alliance	98	0.80	0	106	0.87	0	0
	Independent candidates	117	0.95	0				0
Total		12,324	100.00	6	12,249	100.00	5	11
Valid votes		12,324	98.90		12,249	98.67
Invalid/blank votes		137	1.10		165	1.33
Total votes		12,461	100.00		12,414	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		18,881	66.00		18,881	65.75

In a by-election held on 24 July 2019, the DA managed to win a ward from the ANC.^[11]

Date	Ward	Party of the previous councillor		Party of the newly elected councillor
24 July 2019	2		African National Congress		Democratic Alliance

The council was reconfigured as seen below:

Party		Seats
		Ward	List	Total
	Democratic Alliance	3	4	7
	African National Congress	3	1	4
Total		6	5	11

The local council sends one representative, a member of the Democratic Alliance, to the council of the Overberg District Municipality.^[12]