ANC breakaway facing first test

Cope claims to have registered some 430,000 members

A breakaway faction of South Africa's ruling party is facing its first electoral test as voting gets under way in municipal by-elections.

The dissident group, which calls itself the Congress of the People (Cope), will contest 41 seats in five provinces.

Cope plans to challenge the African National Congress, which has dominated politics since the fall of apartheid in 1994, in next year's general elections.

The new party and its policy platform will be officially launched next week.

Led by former Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota, the breakaway is made up of those who left the governing ANC after Thabo Mbeki stepped down as president in September, following a power struggle with ANC leader Jacob Zuma.

'Particular strength'

Correspondents say a good result for Cope would be the ideal boost ahead of its launch on 16 December.

It claims to have already registered some 430,000 members in the past two months.

"We are contesting by-elections in many of the provinces where we have a particular strength," party general secretary Charlotte Lobe told reporters on Wednesday, AFP news agency reported.

The main election battle will take place in the Western Cape province, where 27 empty councillors' seats are being contested.

The ANC has never won an outright majority there.

The ANC has lodged an application to the highest court in the land to halt 12 of the by-elections after its candidates for those seats were barred by the electoral commission from standing due to registration irregularities.