If opinion surveys are true, the ballot might usher in a new era in the country’s politics.
Since successfully leading the campaign against the white-minority government and apartheid’s racist legal system, the African National Congress (ANC) has remained the dominant political force.
It won the country’s first democratic elections in 1994 and has maintained power ever since.
However, its proportion of the vote in general elections has consistently declined since 2004, when it peaked at 70%.
