Abbreviation: DA
In the 2019 elections, the Democratic Alliance (DA) party will be contesting votes and seats in both the National and Provincial elections, in all nine provinces.
The Democratic Alliance was formed in the year 2000 and in 2010 absorbed the Independent Democrats party of Patricia de Lille. Before 2000, the party was also known as the Democratic Party and the Progressive Party.
The Democratic Alliance’s leader is Mmusi Maimane, who replaced the current Premier of the Western Cape, Helen Zille, as party leader in 2015.
In the 2014 National elections the party got just over 4-million votes, which gave it 89 seats in Parliament.
The Democratic Alliance secured the provincial majority in the Western Cape in 2009, but only after absorbing the Independent Democrats. In 2014 secured an outright majority to rule the province, winning 22 out of 42 seats in the Provincial Legislature.
In the National council of provinces in 1994 the party got 3 seats, and has managed to grow that number to 20 in the 2014 elections.
In the Local Government elections in 1995-96 the party got just more than 300 000 votes nationwide, but has grown its support in every municipal area since then to more than 8-million votes in the 2016 Local Government elections. Apart from ruling through a majority of votes in the City of Cape Town, the DA also rules in 2 metropolitan areas, Gauteng and Tshwane, through coalitions with other parties, including the EFF.
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