Publications
Partners
Johannesburg - The election of the country's main opposition leader lies in the hands of 1 425 delegates, who have been carefully selected to attend the Democratic Alliance's federal congress in Nelson Mandela Bay this weekend.
Most of the delegates - 424 -will be coming from the DA-run province of the Western Cape, according to congress convenor Greg Krumbock.
The second largest province is Gauteng with 373 delegates, followed by KwaZulu-Natal with 138, Eastern Cape 161, Northern Cape 88, Mpumalanga and North West 57 each, Free State 68, and Limpopo 50.
Ten delegates would be coming from the party's overseas network of volunteers, DA Abroad.
The delegates from each province are made of MPs, MPLs, councillors and branch members.
"Our congress composition is governed by the prescripts of our federal constitution, which is a relatively tightly prescribed process," Krumbock told News24.
All the DA's MPs and MPLs, which make up 193 of the delegates, automatically go to congress.
For each MP and MPL there were five councillors.
"These are allocated to the provinces on the basis of each province's pro-rata contribution to the DA vote in the last election of a national nature," Krumbock said.
"The councillors are elected from their constituencies or caucuses, as decided in each province."
After councillors had been selected in each province, branch delegates were chosen.
There is a "complex formula" to elect branch delegates, Krumbock said. It takes into consideration where the delegate is from, whether there is representation from both urban and rural areas, and recognition of members who contributed to building the party.
These delegates are elected by the branch to go to the congress.
A few delegates then also represented the DA's ancillary organisations, such as its women and youth branches.
