Pretoria - The Congress of the People (Cope), which is currently placed third in terms of results in the 2009 General Election, are proud of the progress they have made so far.
Cope presidential candidate Reverend Mvume Dandala told BuaNews a short while ago that taking into consideration the party was only 128 days old, he was happy with the votes garnered by his party.
The party has obtained 7.86 percent of the votes so far, with 733 798 votes. The Independent Electoral Commission has counted more than half of the votes.
Notably, the Cope has 16.44 percent of the votes in the Northern Cape.
"I'm feeling great. More than 700 000 people have endorsed us. Already we have overtaken anything one would have expected, especially by way of new parties formed after 1994," Mr Dandala said.
He said he would be exhilarated to receive more votes, adding that the party was not opposed to forming coalitions with other parties.
"As a matter of fact, the strength of other opposition parties would have been our strength because we made it quite clear that we would be looking at possible coalitions," he said, adding that throughout their campaign Cope made it clear it was not targeting other parties.
Human Sciences Research Council Senior Research Analyst Mpilo Pearl Sithole said it would be Cope's "saving grace" to join with the Democratic Alliance to make it a strong opposition, especially in Gauteng.
Regarding Cope looking forward to claiming the Gauteng province, Ms Sithole said:" I think at this stage the party will make us wait till the last vote is counted. Every vote counts."
Ms Sothole said that the country should now turn its attention to substantive issues such as service delivery.
"It has been an exciting election, however, we need to reflect on substantive issues. The focus has been on election campaigns and how political parties organise themselves around their leaders."
South Africans want attention to be paid on service delivery and economic redistribution, she added.
