Johannesburg — "After consultation with the Electoral Commission and discussion with the (provincial) premiers, I would like to inform the national legislature and the country that the 2004 general elections, for the national and provincial legislatures, will take place on the 14th of April". The announcement in Parliament on Monday by South African President, Thabo Mbeki, confirmed weeks of speculation that the countrys third all-race elections since the end of apartheid would be held in April.
Mbeki said it was envisaged that the date would be published in the government gazette on Wednesday, the original date set for the announcement of the election calendar. That date was timed to coincide with the 14th anniversary of the release from prison of Nelson Mandela in 1990. But Mbeki said the Electoral Commission had asked for the announcement to be brought forward, because it was concerned that it needed enough time to register as many voters as possible, while giving itself adequate time to be able to organise and run the elections "as required by the law".
The Electoral Commission reports that 85 percent of eligible voters, more than 20 million people, have been registered.The voters roll will closed at midnight (22h00 GMT) on Wednesday.
With the South African polls now scheduled, political commentators predict that Mbeki - whose governing African National Congress (ANC) is expected to win easily - will be sworn in for a second five-year term on or near to 27 April, the 10th anniversary of the countrys first multiracial democratic election and the end of white minority rule.
In his annual state of the nation address on Friday, Mbeki outlined a decade of successful progress under the ANC government, although he concluded that the fight against poverty and unemployment continued in South Africa.
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But opposition parties pointed to the governments failure to reduce high crime rates and tackle unemployment and the HIV/Aids pandemic in South Africa where one in nine people (five million out of a population of 45 million) is said to be infected with the virus. Mbeki has come under fire at home and abroad for failing to act decisively against the epidemic.
On Saturday, the main opposition Democratic Alliance leader, Tony Leon, launched his partys election manifesto, adopting "South Africa Deserves Better" as the campaign slogan. "Under the ANC, unemployment is up and jobs are down, crime is up and safety is down. Aids is up and health is down," Leon told hundreds of supporters in Cape Town.
"The ANC is in breach of its contract with the people," Leon said, adding: "The people will choose someone else". But recent opinion polls predict an overwhelming electoral victory for Mbeki and the ANC.
Leon, who draws much of his political base from white voters, said the 2004 general elections in South Africa amounted to a choice between true multiparty democracy and a "one party state" under the ANC. "Its a choice between real non-racialism or the neo-racialism of the ANC," Leon said. "Its a choice between a multi-party democracy that thrives or a one-party state that withers."
Leon pledged that his party would create one million "real jobs" in five years if the Democratic Alliance were elected. "It is a choice between real power to the people and the province or more and more power to the president. We offer a real alternative to the ANC," concluded Leon, whose party is expected to win between 10 and 15 percent of the vote.
