Bloemfontein — Battle lines have been drawn ahead of next year's general election, with the Congress of the People (COPE) formally launching its challenge to the ruling African National Congress (ANC) at a rousing inaugural conference yesterday.

While offering themselves as an alternative to the ANC, key COPE leaders took turns in taking potshots at the African National Congress (ANC) and its president, Jacob Zuma.

They compared the reported intimidation of COPE members to the apartheid regime's tactics. Former Congress of South African Trade Unions president Willie Madisha said the ANC's removal of former president Thabo Mbeki was tantamount to a "coup d'état".

Addressing the first day of the all-important congress, COPE chairman Mosiuoa Lekota told delegates that fear was preventing many people from joining its ranks openly.

"That intimidation and paralysing fear is now gripping sections of our society -- and I mean fear identical to that of the John Vorster and PW Botha era," Lekota said.

The ANC and COPE have been at loggerheads as leaders and supporters go toe-to-toe in their efforts to win over voters. Both parties have accused the other of intolerance, and both parties' leaders have traded insults on the campaign trail.

The ANC-breakaway party is the first real threat to the ANC's hegemony since it took power in 1994. COPE deputy chairman Mbhazima Shilowa paraded the party's new ward councillors who won by-elections in Western Cape last week. As the general election draws closer, the parties are upping the ante in a bid to outsmart each other in their efforts to secure votes.

Tensions could flare when supporters of COPE and the ANC gather for mass rallies in Bloemfontein tomorrow.

Shilowa told reporters his party was "worried" about the possibility of clashes, given the levels of intolerance in the run-up to COPE's launch.

"We should always be concerned when people organise activity on the basis that another party has an event planned.... We hope the ANC will be able to control its members," he said.

While COPE delegates gathered at the University of the Free State, the ANC plastered the city with posters of Zuma. The ruling party plans a gala dinner at the city hall today. The ANC's show of force comes as COPE delegates fine-tune policies and draw up the party's constitution on the second day of the three-day conference.

COPE leaders were undeterred, and told delegates the party planned to tackle the ANC head-on in the next general election, and planned to win. Shilowa said COPE was ready to govern, and had no plans to become an opposition. It also claimed a signed and paid-up membership of 428000.

However, it would still decide how to constitute its branch structures, with many preferring to set it up along voting district lines. COPE will have to rely on its new members to run its election machinery. But as the party promises to give the ANC a run for its money, it faces several challenges, including who will head the party.

At a press conference, Shilowa and Lekota played down reported differences on leadership, saying claims of a battle for the top position were an ANC tactic to divide COPE. While Lekota would either be party president or remain party chairman he might not necessarily emerge as its presidential candidate. This paves the way for Shilowa to go head-to-head with Zuma. Shilowa is seen as a more acceptable face, given his profile as a former premier.

It is also understood that Eastern Cape will insist on playing a leading role in determining the outcome of the COPE leadership race. However, insiders have expressed concern about the apparent dominance of COPE figures from Eastern Cape in the party's leadership committee.

A COPE source said there was intense, behind-the-scenes lobbying to ensure the Eastern Cape delegation to the conference was not reduced. Mluleki George and Andile Nkuhlu, two key COPE leaders from Eastern Cape, evidently raised additional funding to ensure that their province was well represented.

The conference is to end tomorrow.