Voting for the district municipality is done on a separate ballot paper at local and DMA level. The district council is made up of two types of councillors:

• 40% of councillors are elected to the district council by all voters in the area according to proportional representation, where voters vote for the party (40% of the district councillors)
• 60% of councillors are drawn from elected councillors of local municipalities in the district who are sent by their councils to represent them on the district council.

Each council gets a portion of the councillors determined by the number of voters in their municipality.

The following table gives a summary of the type of councils, the areas they cover, how voters living within the council areas can vote, the number of councillors each may have, and how the council is made up of councillors.

PR = Proportional Representation

PR means proportional representation, where voters vote for a political party not an individual candidate within a party. The ballot paper just shows the political parties. Then the party gets the same share of the number of councillors as the share of total PR votes it got. The party decides which members fill those councillor places. The party can remove a PR councillor at any time, and replace her or him with someone else.

With a ward vote the ballot paper shows the names of candidates and the party they represent (some candidates may be independents). When a ward councillor resigns, dies, or is disqualified, a by-election is held to elect a new councillor in their place. A ward councillor who leaves the party they represented in the election must resign.