Cape Town - Hopefuls vying to get a DA seat in Parliament or the nine provincial legislatures after the elections will know their fate this weekend.
The party’s federal executive will meet in Johannesburg to decide on the party’s candidate lists for Parliament and the legislatures.
These lists will be submitted to the Independent Electoral Commission as the party’s candidates before the general elections.
The higher a person’s name is on a list the bigger chance they have to get elected as an MPL or MP.
In the Western Cape the party’s leaders are expected to meet on Tuesday to finalise the DA’s list for the provincial legislature.
DA federal executive chairman James Selfe said only two provinces had submitted their candidate lists so far.
In October the party started with interviews of 255 hopefuls in the Western Cape.
An 80-member provincial electoral college questioned candidates. They then sat an exam to test their general knowledge and grasp of the party and its policies.
The DA final list for the province will contain 50 names. There are only 42 seats in the provincial legislature.
DA leader Helen Zille is the only MPL automatically on the list.
In 2009 new names popped up on the party’s candidates list for the Western Cape.
They were University of Stellenbosch academic Ivan Meyer, and former grassroots activist and regional manager of the Office of the Inspecting Judge of Prisons Albert Fritz.
Both are MECs, and Meyer is the party’s Western Cape leader.
Other newcomers to the national list were Wilmot James, then executive chairman of the Africa Genome Education Institute, and then DA media officer Lindiwe Mazibuko. James and Mazibuko are leading the party in Parliament now.
Selfe said on Monday that the federal executive had the power to change 10 percent of the lists based on gender, race and expertise.
“Those who made it to the lists will probably hear on Friday or Saturday,” he said.
They still had to decide whether the party would also release the lists to the public immediately, he added.
The lists were also not final.
People who felt the process was unfair would get a chance to complain to Ian Davidson, who chaired the sub-committee on appeals, Selfe said.
Cape Times