FREEDOM Front Plus (FF+) leader Pieter Mulder this weekend unveiled a "new mission" for his party, as he launched its 2014 election campaign. It seems to represent the flailing limp of an organisation that used to take much pride in marching headstrong from obscurity to oblivion. "Not with a bang but a whimper," as TS Eliot put it; it’s time to say goodbye to the FF+.Since the advent of our democracy, the FF+ has lost nearly 280,000 votes at the national polls — down from 424,555 (2.2%) in 1994 to 146,796 in 2009 (0.8%). Of more concern to the party, however, will have been its showing in the 2011 local government elections, the most recent gauge of its performance. Then it declined further still, which is worrying because smaller parties should benefit from the higher differential turnout in these elections. Nevertheless, it managed just 120,519 votes, or 0.5%. In the previous local government elections (2006) it had improved on its national showing (2004) by about 110,000 votes, m...
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