Long queues as South Africa goes to polls

South Africans of all races voted today for a new government for the third time in a decade with the party credited with ending apartheid assured of another sweeping victory.

Braving an early morning chill, voters lined up from as early as 3 am to cast their ballots for a new national parliament and provincial assemblies.

President Thabo Mbeki was one of the first to vote when polls opened four hours later.

“The big day has come,” he said, relaxed and smiling at a booth set up in a park in the capital, Pretoria. “It is now time for the people to speak. I hope that all the millions who have registered will come out today to vote.”

While the outcome is certain, political leaders worry that the thrill of democracy is waning ten years after South Africa’s first all-race vote ended close to half a century of oppressive white minority rule.

In 1994, an unprecedented 19.5 million of the estimated 21.7 million eligible voters cast ballots, waiting in long, snaking lines up to a mile long. That number dropped to 15.9 million in 1999 and analysts say turnout could be still lower this year.

South Africa’s lingering poverty and unemployment, along with crime, corruption and a devastating Aids epidemic, appear to be wearing away the sheen on its young democracy.

The main concern is apathy among the new generation of voters, too young to remember the brutality of apartheid.

But by midmorning today, queues hundreds long had formed outside many polling stations around the country. White housewives stood side-by-side with black maids and gardeners, some carrying flasks of hot tea for the wait.

Voters cheered when Nelson Mandela, the anti-apartheid legend who became South Africa’s first black president, arrived at a suburban Johannesburg car club to vote for the third time.

“I feel elated that I can be able to assert my right as a citizen,” he said, smiling broadly. “And I sincerely hope that the whole world will abandon violence and use peaceful methods of asserting their rights.”

Mbeki, Mandela’s successor, highlighted his African National Congress’ achievements and asked supporters to be patient in an unusual door-to-door campaign that took him from squalid shacks to comfortable middle-class living rooms.

Successive ANC governments have built 1.6 million houses, brought clean water to nine million more people and now deliver electricity to 70% of South African homes. The once socialist party has revived an ailing economy and lifted the country from diplomatic isolation to take a leading role in African affairs.

Opponents led by the Democratic Alliance, which is expected to finish a distant second, accuse Mbeki and the ANC of mishandling the country’s Aids crisis, neglecting to crack down on corruption and crime, and failing to create jobs.

Electoral officials reported minor delays at some polling stations, but said voting was going smoothly in most areas.

More than 20 million of the 45 million population registered to vote for a 400-member National Assembly, which will meet next week to choose a president. Nine provincial assemblies will also be elected and will in turn select delegates to the 90-member National Council of Provinces, parliament’s second chamber.

The new president, expected to be Mbeki, will be sworn in April 27, the day South Africa celebrates a decade of multiracial democracy.