SOUTH AFRICA: South Africa's third post-apartheid elections will take place on April 14th, President Thabo Mbeki announced yesterday.
The vote to elect a new president and parliament comes 10 years after Nelson Mandela became South Africa's first black leader.
The ruling African National Congress (ANC) is expected to win easily. The question is by what margin, and whether the vote will pass peacefully.
The ANC holds two-thirds of the seats in parliament and controls seven of the 10 provinces. Its greatest weakness is in KwaZulu-Natal, where the Inkatha Freedom Party of Zulu nationalist Mangosuthu Buthelezi holds sway. Clashes between ANC and IFP supporters in recent weeks led to several injuries, raising raised fears of further violence.
Elsewhere, the ANC has blunted opposition through coalition-building, sometimes with unlikely partners. For example, it controls Western Cape province through the New National Party, a renamed version of the white-dominated party that ruled during apartheid.
The main opposition Democratic Alliance party is targeting the healthcare crisis as the ANC's perceived weakness. An estimated five of South Africa's 45 million people are infected with HIV - the world's highest number of cases.
In other areas, South Africa has made giant steps since the end of white rule in 1994. Inflation has fallen dramatically, a black middle class has emerged, and average economic growth rates of about 3 per cent are higher than under apartheid. "White only" signs have disappeared, as blacks buy property in previously forbidden areas.
South Africa's influence has extended rapidly across sub-Saharan Africa.