Johannesburg — INDEPENDENT Democrats (ID) leader Patricia de Lille vowed yesterday that her party would replace the Democratic Alliance (DA) as the official opposition after Wednesday's national elections.

De Lille's optimism comes in the wake of a new survey by independent research company Markdata, which showed that the ID had garnered 10% support among voters that participated in the study.

The survey, which is yet to be published, was conducted towards the end of February. About 8% of the voters interviewed confirmed they were going to vote for the ID.

Inspired by the findings, De Lille predicted that her party would have more than 20 seats in Parliament after the elections. This would, however, depend on voter turnout.

The DA's director of strategy Ryan Coetzee, dismissed Markdata's results yesterday as "ridiculous".

De Lille has accused the DA of being an opposition party that "is not loyal to the country".

"SA does not need a party that does not add value to the building of this country," she said yesterday.

"The DA is just opposing for the sake of opposing. They have an agenda that wants to take us back to the pre-1994 period."

De Lille attributed the DA's "vitriolic attack" on her to her refusal to join that party, and to the findings of a DA-commissioned study that said the ID would attract 30% of the official opposition party's supporters.

She said the ID's growth was a result of the party's strategy to break the "racial mould" existing in South African politics.

She said South Africans were tired of political parties that sought to woo them along racial lines.

"Unlike other parties, we have dedicated our energy into addressing issues that affect people's daily lives. These include crime, corruption, HIV/AIDS and poverty," said the ID leader.

The DA, said De Lille, was not an "issue" for her party. The ID was focusing its energy on targeting traditional African National Congress (ANC) supporters.

ID secretary-general Avril Harding said 50% of the ID's 62000 registered members defected from the ANC and only 30% were formerly from the DA.

"Why should we worry about the DA because it is not the ruling party and it will never be the ruling party?" said Harding.

Coetzee said the three surveys conducted by the DA among registered voters had shown that the ID was not going to get more than 5% of votes nationally.

" De Lille is desperate to convince disbelieving voters that her party will amount to something after the election," said Coetzee.

"The brutal truth is that she will get between 1%- 2% of the overall vote nationally, and might get 2,5 % if she is lucky."