Cape Town — President Kgalema Motlanthe has announced that South Africa will hold its fourth democratic elections on April 22.

Replying in Parliament to the debate on his annual "state of the nation" address, he said national and provincial elections would be held on the  same day. He made the announcement after consultations with the  Independent Electoral Commission.

The elections will take place amidst unprecedented ferment in South African politics. Since the last election, in which the ruling African National Congress (ANC) won a majority of more than two-thirds of votes, the country has seen the first major split within the party that dominated its liberation struggle.

The breakaway Congress of the People (COPE) could cut the ANC's majority to the degree that it could, for example, no longer amend the Constitution without opposition support. COPE was formed after the ANC  unceremoniously pushed former President Thabo Mbeki from office last September.

Mbeki's successor as party leader, Jacob Zuma, will be the party's presidential candidate, despite facing allegations of corruption relating to an arms deal in the late 1990s.

South African elections are based on a party list system, in which parliamentary and provincial assembly seats are allocated according the support received by each party in the election. Critics of the system say that it gives too much power to political parties, which decide who to place on party lists and in what order, and too little power to voters to hold legislators accountable in their areas.

South Africa's president is not elected directly. After parliamentary elections, parties represented in Parliament nominate candidates and legislators choose the president.