South Africa is facing a crisis of low voter turnout, which is worsening with every election. In particular, the 2021 Local Government Elections (LGE) recorded the lowest voter turnout since the dawn of democracy. Nationally, the overall voter turnout was 45.86%. In the North West Province, voter turnout declined by almost 11% from 53.63% in 2016 to 42.36% in 2021.The aim of this paper is to examine the impact of the poor governance of the fifth municipal administration, elected in 2016 in the North West Province, on voter turnout in the municipalities across the province during the 2021 LGE. It adopts document analysis as a means of data collection. The findings indicate that the municipalities that experienced consistent section 139 interventions as a result of poor governance registered sharp declines in voter turnout. The paper recommends that section 139 interventions be de-politicised to improve outcomes and governance. It furt