The Minority Front (MF) will not be contesting the 2024 General Elections.
This is according to the Electoral Commission’s (IEC) final list of parties and independent candidates contesting the elections, which does not carry the name of the MF.
The party has previously contested each election from 1994, securing two seats in the National Assembly in 2004 and representation in the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature after each provincial election.
However, its support over the years has been dwindling. The party’s founder Amichand Rajbansi passed away in 2011, leaving his wife Shameen Thakur Rajbansi at the helm.
Party leader Thakur-Rajbansi is yet to release a statement about their role in the upcoming election. Political analyst Dr Lubna Nadvi says it comes as very little surprise that the MF is not contesting this election nationally.
“Over the years, the MF has been declining in terms of support, even the support that it may have got from outside of the Indian community. Things have changed so most of its support was in the Chatsworth area, so over a period of time, the party has not grown to the extent that it needed to grow. We in SA have moved past the notion of voting for race base parties, parties concentrating to one race group. So, I think the party has not grown and campaigned in other areas.”
