By Siyabonga Mkhwanazi, Vivian Warby and Caiphus Kgosana
Democratic Alliance CEO Ryan Coetzee, the backroom mastermind of the party's electoral success, could be rewarded with the coveted position of parliamentary leader - effectively making him the leader of the opposition in Parliament.
Coetzee, a shrewd strategist, is vying for the position along with party Eastern Cape leader Athol Trollip and the former director of Idasa, prominent academic Wilmot James.
The DA federal executive, which met on Tuesday to assess the party's performance in the elections, will meet again next week to decide on its new parliamentary leader and chief whip as well as to allocate portfolios to some of its 67 new MPs.
Former DA parliamentary leader Sandra Botha was made South Africa's ambassador to the Czech Republic last year.
Coetzee has been an MP since 2004, when he was also the party's chief election strategist, a position he took up again for the 2009 campaign.
His success in masterminding a campaign that saw the party increase its number of voters by more than a million, helping it clinch the Western Cape in the process, is likely to be well rewarded by DA leader Helen Zille.
Zille, until today the mayor of Cape Town, will become Western Cape premier and will need someone to run the show in Parliament while she concentrates on running the province.
Coetzee refused to comment.
Trollip, who entered the ring in the leadership contest won by Zille in 2007 when Tony Leon stood down, is another name in the mix.
Fluent in Xhosa, he is regarded as a rising star by some in the party, but his lack of parliamentary experience is likely to be a disadvantage to him.
James, who ventured into politics last year when his 12-year stint as a trustee of the Ford Foundation in New York, which prohibited him from political activity, came to an end, will also be new to Parliament.
The federal executive will also decide whether party chief whip Ian Davidson continues in that position or is replaced.
DA federal chairperson James Selfe said the federal executive had also looked at areas where the party had performed well and where it had stumbled.
"The long-term focus of the party's overall planning is now to build on the momentum of this electoral performance and to ensure that our vision of the open opportunity society for all becomes further entrenched as the alternative to the ANC's close crony society for all."
Meanwhile, COPE has to try to accommodate some of the people who failed to make the cut.
With only 16 of COPE's 30 parliamentary seats to come from its national list, former ANC MP and chairman of the parliamentary committee on correctional services Dennis Bloem has failed to secure a return to Parliament on the party's ticket as he is number 30 on COPE's national list.
Former Western Cape MEC for Community Safety Leonard Ramatlakane, at number 18 on the national list, has also failed to make it.
Fellow COPE member and former ANC MP Mampe Ramotsamai is in 17th spot on the new party's list and may not make it back.
People lower down can be bumped up if others above them decline nomination.
Nomsa Jajula, a former Eastern Cape health MEC, is another politician who is not going to Parliament as she features one place above Bloem in position 29.
Cope spokesperson Sipho Ngwema denied speculation that party leader Mosiuoa Lekota was reconsidering his decision not to go to Parliament.
The IFP has lost some of its most experienced MPs, as the party got 18 parliamentary seats. Senior MPs who were low on the IFP's list and will not return to Parliament include Hennie Bekker, Sybil Seaton (who retired before the elections), Suzanne Vos and Dr Ruth Rabinowitz.
The IDs' reduced stake of four parliamentary seats will go to party leader Patricia De Lille, MPs Lance Greyling, party secretary-general Haniff Hoosen and newcomer Ari Seirlis, a quadriplegic and activist for the rights of people with disabilities.