Talks on coalition-forming have started even before the announcement of the final vote count in the Cape Town Metro Council.
Democratic Alliance (DA) mayoral candidate Helen Zille said her party had approached the Independent Democrats (ID) and African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) ”to say let’s talk, we’re available”.
”In this election, voters had a choice between the African National Congress or one of the opposition parties,” she told the domestic press agency Sapa at the election results centre in Cape Town.
”A significant majority of voters chose one of the opposition parties. This reflects a mandate on voters to form a coalition of opposition parties. We want to do just that.”
But ID mayoral candidate Simon Grindrod remained steadfast against any coalition.
The ID, he said, would instead campaign for the abolition of the current executive mayoral system in favour of an executive committee system.
This was fairer as it gave parties a portfolio and seats proportional to their representation, he said.
The ID hoped to get the DA’s support on this issue. Grindrod confirmed he had been approached by Zille on Thursday evening, but said he declined any coalition discussion.
Zille said this amounted to putting the ANC back into power against the wishes of voters.
”It is a death sentence for any opposition party to put the ANC back in government,” she said. ”We must learn from the past.”
Asked what the future held for the DA without the ID’s co-operation, she said: ”We’ll see.”
The Democratic Alliance was leading the race for the Cape Town Metro Council with nearly 89% of votes cast in Wednesday’s local government poll by 7.30pm on Thursday.
The party was leading with 43,54% of votes on its closest rival, the ANC with 36,23%.
The Independent Democrats had 10,95% of the votes, the African Christian Democratic Party 3,3%, and independent the candidates were in the fifth place with 1,46%.
The African Muslim Party achieved 1,3% by 6,30pm, the United Democratic Movement 0,74%, the Freedom Front Plus 0,52% and the Pan Africanist Congress 0,49%. – Sapa