South Africans are voting in parliamentary elections, which will also determine the next president. <br /><br />It is the first time those born after the end of white minority rule may take part and the first election since Nelson Mandela died. <br /><br />The ruling ANC party is favourite to win a majority, despite its leader Jacob Zuma being dogged by a corruption scandal in the lead-up to the vote<br /><br />ANC has been the ruling party since the first post-apartheid elections in 1994.<br /><br />Their nearest rival, the Democratic Alliance, lacks mass appeal. It has struggled to shed its image as a “white” party. The DA polled 16.7 percent nationwide in 2009. <br /><br />But the most spirited challenge comes from a new left party, whose leader models himself on Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez.<br /><br />Julius Malema’s Economic Freedom Fighters wants to nationalise banks and mines and seize white-owned farms without compensation. <br /><br />Malema – the expelled leader of the ANC’s Youth League – even wears a Chavez-style jaunty red beret, but polls put his party’s support at no more than five percent.<br /><br />Opinion polls suggest there is no doubt about the overall result. ANC support is estimated at around 65 percent.
