S African parties end campaigns

Opinion polls say the ruling ANC is headed for victory

Political parties in South Africa are holding the final day of campaigning ahead of Wednesday's elections.

Election adverts have disappeared from televisions and radios.

The African National Congress looks set to be re-elected and attention is focussed on the two provinces where it does not have a majority.

Two days of special voting has started for an estimated 93,000 elderly, disabled and hospitalised voters, who are unable to get to polling stations.

Shot dead

In KwaZulu-Natal, three political activists were killed over the weekend, bringing to 11 the number of political deaths since February.

The ANC is striving to gain control of KwaZulu-Natal from the opposition Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP).

Thousands died in clashes between the two parties in the run-up to South Africa's first all-race elections in 1994.

Survivors of violence

Two ANC activists were shot dead on Saturday after being abducted from a late night church service in Estcourt town.

An IFP advisor was killed on Friday.

Thousands of police have been deployed in the province to ensure the election goes peacefully.

IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi has joined a coalition with the main opposition Democratic Alliance to try and defeat the ANC in the province.

Nationwide, the DA admits it won't win but hopes to increase its share of the ballot.

Tireless campaigner

The BBC's Alastair Leithead in Johannesburg says control of Western Cape, around Cape Town, is also up for grabs.

Mixed-race, or coloured, voters form the majority there and the New National Party, the successor to the party which established apartheid, won the last elections 1999.

Mbeki has been reinvented as a 'warm, hands-on president'

The NNP has since formed a coalition with the ANC.

Polls say the ANC should win two-thirds of the vote nationwide - perhaps even 70%.

President Thabo Mbeki has been tirelessly campaigning door-to-door around the country - smiling, dancing and meeting the people, rather than holding the mass rallies of old.

Our correspondent says he has been reinvented as a warm, hands-on president, listening to the voice of the people.

The inauguration of the new president will form the centrepiece of the celebrations marking 10 years of democracy later this month.