FF Plus leader Corne Mulder explains the party’s surprise results

Freedom Front Plus’ Western Cape leader and chief whip in Corne Mulder said on Thursday that the Democratic Alliance’s mistake was losing focus in its election campaign and lost voters in the process.

He said that the DA’s worst mistake was in trying to be everything for everyone.

“The DA became a victim of trying to be everything for everyone and then you lose focus and people moved away from them.”

Though the results had also taken him by surprise, Mulder said his party did work on the ground with a message for a push back without the racially-based policies that the DA and ANC used to campaign. The message seemingly pleased many, who indicated to the party that they would be voting for the party that would help them fight back bullies.

He said in a video shared by journalist Andi Makinana: “We simply said it’s time for a push back in terms of, we represent minorities and we said ‘We’re sick and tired of the minority being bullied in South Africa’ and we also reached out to other minorities, especially the so-called coloured community and brown community, and other minorities. We did get good support from that.

“All indications were that it was successful. I think it was time for us, that’s why I said it’s time to fight back, we argued that we should move away from the racially-based policies of both the ANC and the DA in terms of BEE and AA which is detrimental to other minorities.

“The polling showed us way back that there is something happening on the ground and I have no doubt about that and we anticipated that this is going to be something positive for the FF Plus. Many people already then came spontaneously to us and told us ‘This time we’re going to vote for the FF Plus’ and that’s exactly what we’re seeing at the moment, obviously we’re quite happy and it’s a positive surprise.

“On the other hand, we worked hard on the election campaign and let’s hope it remains where we are right now in fourth position.”

The Freedom Front Plus were surprise contenders in the top-five race, having obtained more than 135,000 votes so far, but this could change as the counting and capturing process for two-thirds of voting districts was not yet complete. The party would nevertheless feel highly encouraged by the fact that it has grown from less than 1% to above 3% of the share during counting.

Analysts were already saying that the FF+ was likely picking up its votes from former Afrikaner DA voters who feel disaffected with the DA’s more racially progressive policies and Mulder agrees.

You can follow the results data as they are announced by the IEC by accessing The Citizen’s results page here.

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