Helen Zille and DA leaders at press conference (October 2019)

The 2019 Democratic Alliance Federal Council chairpersonship election was held on 20 October 2019 to elect the new Chairperson of the Federal Council of the Democratic Alliance (DA), after incumbent

James Selfe James Selfe (born 23 August 1955) is a South African politician, a Member of Parliament for the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA), and the party's former Federal Council Chairperson. He is also the party's Shadow Minister of Correctional Serv ...

had announced his retirement in June 2019. The members of the party's Federal Council elected the new chairperson. Helen Zille was elected to the position.

Background

In June 2019,

announced his retirement from the post of Chairperson of the Federal Council of the DA. He served in the post for almost two decades under the leadership of

Tony Leon Anthony James Leon (born 15 December 1956) is a South African politician who served as leader of the opposition from 1999-2007 as leader of the Democratic Alliance (DA). He led the DA from its inception in 2000, until his retirement from lea ...

Helen Zille Otta Helene Maree (''née'' Zille ; born 9 March 1951), known as Helen Zille, is a South African politician. She has served as the Chairperson of the Federal Council of the Democratic Alliance since 20 October 2019. From 2009 until 2019, she w ...

and

Mmusi Maimane Mmusi Aloysias Maimane (born 6 June 1980) is a South African politician, businessman, and Leader of Build One South Africa, a political party. Maimane is also the former Leader of South Africa's opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) political ...

. The leadership position is similar to that of the role of Secretary-General of the ruling

African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a social-democratic political party in South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when the first post-apartheid election install ...

(ANC). In recent months, the DA had been plagued by infighting and disorder. The party unsuccessfully tried to grow its vote share in the May 2019 national elections, only to be met with its first electoral decline in its history. This consequently caused leadership uncertainty within the party.

Candidates

The candidate nomination process closed on 4 October 2019 at around 17:00. Four candidates declared their intention to contest the election and were as follow: *

Athol Trollip Roland Athol Price Trollip (born 12 March 1964) is a South African politician and provincial chairman of ActionSA in the Eastern Cape. He was previously a member of the Democratic Alliance (DA), serving as the Federal Chairperson of the DA from ...

, Federal Party Chairperson * Thomas Walters, Deputy Party Federal Council Chairperson * Mike Waters, Deputy Federal Party Chairperson *

, former Party Leader

Results

On 20 October 2019, DA Spokesperson Solly Malatsi tweeted that Helen Zille had been elected to the post. The party soon confirmed her election.

References

{{Democratic Alliance (South Africa) Democratic Alliance (South Africa) Politics of South Africa