(Bloomberg) -- The Democratic Alliance, South Africa’s main opposition party, said it may form a part of the national government after this year’s elections and it will take action to fix the stumbling economy if it does win power. 

A series of opinion polls show the DA winning between 20% and 31% of the vote, which must be held by mid-August. While the ruling African National Congress is expected by some to garner slightly less than 50% support, it’s unclear how the DA could form a governing coalition if that were to happen. 

The party has formed an alliance with 10 other groups, known as the Multi-Party Charter, but they are contesting the election under their own banners. The alliance’s members have also pledged not to work with the ANC or the populist Economic Freedom Fighters, currently the third-largest party. 

“For the first time, the ANC will lose its majority,” DA leader John Steenhuisen told reporters in Johannesburg on Tuesday. “For the first time, the DA has a pathway to enter provincial and national government beyond the borders of the Western Cape,” he added, without specifying how that will happen. 

The DA’s election pledges include ending years of power cuts that have hobbled output, revising the national budget to introduce stricter limits on state debt, ensuring government appointments are based on merit and halving violent crime rates.

“We are serious about offering an alternative that can win. We are serious about defeating the ANC and keeping the EFF and other radicals out of government,” Steenhuisen said. “But above all, we are serious about rescuing South Africa.”

The DA won 20.8% support in the last national vote in 2019, behind the ANC’s 57.5% and ahead of the EFF on 10.8%

 

 

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