ANC records historic polls win in S Africa

Africa's oldest liberation movement, which in 1994 forced an end to some five decades of white racist rule, won a two-thirds majority in Wednesday's landmark polls -- a magic figure it had failed to garner in the country's last two elections.

The ANC was set to celebrate its pioneering win at a victory party later Friday in Johannesburg with Mbeki due to attend the ceremony at a posh convention centre in the upmarket Sandton suburb.

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"We want to thank our workers and supporters. Unfortunately we will not be able to fit in everyone," ANC spokesman Steyn Speed said of the bash.

Trailing behind the ANC in was the Democratic Alliance with 13 percent of the vote, with 61.2 percent of the ballots counted.

The Independent Electoral Commission said preliminary estimates showed that the turnout was likely to be around 75 percent of the nearly 21 million registered voters, down from the previous two democratic elections.

As Mbeki braced for a second and last term in power, the party issued a statement declaring that it had won a "decisive mandate to fight poverty and create work" from voters from all races and classes.

"We have good reason to be pleased, our expectations were a decisive majority ... the results show that people really appreciate what we have achieved in the last 10 years," ANC's Speed told AFP.

Critics have charged that the ANC onslaught was a fait accompli in a country where 78 percent of the population is black and where people largely vote along ethnic lines, warning that South Africa ran the risk of turning into a single-party state.