Three seats for De Lille
2004-04-15 16:09
Pretoria - Patricia de Lille's Independent Democrats - established just a year ago - has notched up enough votes already to be assured of three seats in the National Assembly.
The fiery De Lille has 2.14% or 144 227 votes - each seat in the Assembly requires about 50 000 votes.
De Lille left the Pan African Congress of Azania last year - stripping that party of one of its three seats. She has forged strong support in the Northern Cape, Gauteng and the Western Cape in particular, polling particularly strongly in the Western Cape, her home province.
De Lille has pushed aside the former ruling party, the New National Party - at least so far - which has just 140 866 votes or 2.09%.
This would translate in vote terms to three seats as well but likely to go up to eight when the final tallies are done.