By Michael O’Donovan
One of the defining features of the 2019 national election was the large number of new parties entering the fray.
This year 48 political parties paid the R200 000 required just to enter the competition for seats in the national assembly. Only 14 parties are expected to win seats in the National Assembly. The vast majority will lose their deposit as they failed to secure a seat in parliament – in total R6.8m.
However if the 35 smallest parties had entered the competition as a single entity they, with a total of 375-thousand votes, would have emerged as the sixth largest party. This places them slightly behind the FF+ but ahead of the ACDP with their 146-thousand votes.
The number of votes they secured collectively amounts to 2 percent of the total. This would have been sufficient for the parties to win nine of the 400 sets in the National Assembly.
