Independent Democrats

For the United States political designation, see Independent Democrat. For the Iraqi electoral formation led by Adnan Pachachi, see Assembly of Independent Democrats. For the Czech party, see Independent Democrats (Czech Republic).

Independent Democrats
President	Patricia de Lille
Secretary-General	Haniff Hoosen
Chairperson	Mervyn Cirota
Founded	21 June 2003 (2003-06-21)
Headquarters	Cape Town, Western Cape
Ideology	Social democracy, Liberalism
Official colours	Orange red
National Assembly seats	4 / 400
NCOP seats	2 / 90
Website
www.id.org.za
Politics of South Africa Political parties Elections

South Africa

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The Independent Democrats are a South African political party, formed by former Pan Africanist Congress member Patricia de Lille in 2003 via floor crossing legislation. The party's platform is basically populist and anti-corruption, with a mixture of right-liberal proposals and left-wing sensibilities. The party's strongholds are the Northern and Western Cape.

On August 15, 2010, the party announced plans to merge with the larger Democratic Alliance as part of a plan to challenge the governing African National Congress (ANC).

2009 election manifesto

Ahead of the national elections in 2009, the ID launched a manifesto promising that, if elected to power, they would increase the staffing of the South African Police Service to 200,000, enlist 5,000 caseworkers to operate in crime-stricken communities, make South Africa a leader in renewable energy and finance a minimum social grant by taxing luxury goods, tobacco and alcohol. In addition they vowed that an "ID government would fire a minister whose department received a qualified audit two years in a row."

Merger with DA

In 2010 ID leader Patricia de Lille formalized an agreement to merge with the Democratic Alliance. The two parties will be fully merged by 2014. Due to this, the ID did not contest the 2011 local elections as a separate entity, instead fielding its candidates on the DA:s ballots. In February 2012 DA parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko reshuffled her shadow cabinet, which included appointing members of the ID to shadow portfolios for the first time. This was seen as a move towards strengthening the co-operation between the two parties heading towards the completion of the merger.

Election results

Election	Votes	%	Seats
2009	162,915	0.92	4
2004	269,765	1.70	7

See also

• Liberalism in South Africa

External links

• Independent Democrats (official site)

References

• Hartley, Aziz. "ID releases election manifesto." Cape Times, 2 February 2009 in literature: 4.