CAPE TOWN - The Democratic Alliance triumphed in two municipal by-elections held in Cape Town on Wednesday. In a predominantly Afrikaans ward in Parow the DA won 96,34% of the vote, the African National Congress 1,19%, and the Congress of the People 2,48% of the vote. There was a turnout of 36,07%. In the 2006 local government elections the DA received 82.34% of the vote on a turnout of 58,26%. The Independent Democrats and African Christian Democratic Party - both of whom drew just over 5% of the vote in 2006 - did not contest the ward.

The other by-election contest was in a predominantly Coloured ward in Mitchell's Plain. The ward became vacant after the Independent Democrats councillor for the area, Dennis Williams, crossed over to the DA. He re-stood as the DA's candidate in the ward. Williams won the seat with 79,38% of the vote, on a 37,35% turnout. The ID candidate won 8% of the vote, the ANC candidate 6,9%, and the COPE candidate 2,6%. In the 2006 elections the DA candidate had won 37,76% of the vote, on a 42,8% turnout, as opposed to the ID's 38,76%, and the ANC's 12,23%.

In a statement Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille said the results were "a clear sign that the DA is on course to win the Western Cape on 22 April. If all our voters turn out on election day, we could win the province with an outright majority."

Zille said that the DA's victory in Mitchell's Plain indicated "that the ID is haemorrhaging support in its former Cape Town strongholds. Opposition voters are consolidating their forces within the DA." Its victory in Parow meanwhile, and the poor performance of the COPE candidate, showed that the "DA is retaining the support of long-standing DA voters and, contrary to the perception of some analysts, COPE is not a factor in the Western Cape."

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