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MISTRA Coalitions Barometer 2026
7 October 2026
MISTRA launched its 2026 edition of the MISTRA Coalitions Barometer on Wednesday, 07 October 2026.
MISTRA has produced a report on every election since 2014, and the seminal book on coalitions: Marriages of Inconvenience: The politics of coalitions in South Africa. From this research, MISTRA identified the need for a Coalitions Barometer to track the emerging, rapidly expanding political culture of coalitions.
This 2026 edition includes both a narrative report and a comprehensive dataset, the MISTRA Coalitions Barometer: 2026 Dataset. This dataset tracks, in one place, coalition formation, termination, party roles, coalition typology, governance outcomes, and other key indicators. The report features new insights into coalition trends in South Africa over the last five years.
These tools will be an invaluable resource for researchers, journalists, policymakers, political party officials, diplomats, students and anyone else wanting to better understand South Africa’s coalition politics.
The keynote address was delivered by former IEC Commissioner, Terry Tselane, whose career there spans over twenty years. Terry Tselane is also the founder of the Institute of Election Management Services in Africa.
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