South Africans are going to the polls in what is expected to be the most competitive general election since the end of apartheid in 1994. The ruling ANC - led by Jacob Zuma - is expected to win, but it could lose its two-thirds majority in Parliament. It is being challenged by a new party which split from the ANC last year - as well as by the long-standing official opposition, the Democratic Alliance. The Independent Electoral Commission says it expects a high turnout. Some 20,000 polling stations are being used for the more than 23 million registered voters. Mr Zuma said the emergence of the opposition Congress of the People (Cope) had "re-energised" the ANC. Voter boost On the eve of the vote, he said there was an energy and excitement about the contest which had not been seen the country's first democratic election 15 years ago. Many of the new voters are young people who have little memory of the struggle to end white minority rule, which brought the ANC to power. Analysts say the emergence of Cope last November could have accounted for a boost in the number of registered voters. But polls have recorded a fall in the party's popularity since then. "As they emerged, people decided they weren't what they thought," political analyst Bob Mattes told the BBC. Cope has fielded a relatively unknown presidential candidate, former Bishop Mvume Dandala, who has struggled to make an impact on the public scene, analysts say. Around 200,000 ANC supporters filled several stadiums on Sunday to see Mr Zuma address them via satellite link from a rally in Johannesburg's Ellis Park. A Cope rally in Polokwane Limpopo province attracted around 5,000 supporters. 'Cultural revolution' Some say the real battle is between Cope and the Democratic Alliance, for second place. Neither party has ruled out entering into a coalition after the election. An opposition coalition would provide the biggest challenge to the ANC since it was first elected in 1994. DA leader Helen Zille has said her party wants to deny the ANC a two-thirds majority this time around. They say the ANC wants to change the constitution to make it harder to prosecute politicians for corruption. Mr Zuma, who faced corruption charges until a few weeks before voting, again rejected any suggestion that there remained a cloud of suspicion over him. "There is no cloud above my head, there is not even a mist," he told journalists in his final press briefing before polls open. The charges, which related to a government arms deal, were withdrawn by the National Prosecuting Authority after phone tap recordings of the lead investigator and prosecutor suggested there had been political interference in the prosecution. Political commentator Xolela Mangcu says this is the first time that the country is about to be led by someone not from the educated elite of black society. "There is a cultural revolution in the ANC," he said. Source: BBC