President Nelson Mandela yesterday set June 2nd as the date for South Africa's second fully democratic election, the first since his African National Congress swept to power in April 1994.
Under the present constitution, adopted in mid-1996, Mr Mandela was prevented from officially declaring election day until the life of the present parliament expired. But under a compromise agreement negotiated with opposition parties, he announced his intention yesterday of formally declaring June 2nd as election day at a later date.
His announcement came as the opposition Democratic Party sought a court order in the Pretoria High Court to set aside a decision by the ANC-controlled government to make possession of a bar-coded identity document a prerequisite for voting. It contended that the requirement favoured the ANC's mainly black constituency, the majority of whom were, for historical reasons, already in possession of bar-coded IDs when the ANC took its decision last August.
A similar though identical application from the National Party was rejected by the Cape Town High Court last week, a decision which strengthened the ANC in its resolve not to heed requests to make all IDs, including those issued before the introduction of electronically sensitive bar-codes, legal tender for the election.
Latest figures show that about 60 per cent of over 26 million voters have registered to vote during the first two phases to create a national voters' roll in November and January.
As the formal countdown to the election began after yesterday's announcement, the main question was not whether the ANC would win - that is a betting certainty - but whether it would attain a two-thirds majority.