Non-PRO English Art/Literary General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters

This is from Nadine Gordimer's... The event is the elections in South Africa when Zuma got elected President. A group of former comrades (people who took part in the struggle against apartheid; they are living in the same neighbourhood now, the "Suburb") get together to watch the election results. The "Party" is the ANC.

"...at the Anderson house twenty-four hours later the final results of the day, 22 April. The mood—rueful, it’s Zuma—congratulatory, the Party has anyway defeated the lucky dip of rivals; of course whatever their doubts the comrades of the Suburb have all voted for the Party."

I'm not sure how to take this "lucky dip of rivals". Is it something to say that the political rivals luckily coincided in being so unsuccessful that they paved the way for the ANC and Zuma's victory?