The African National Congress (ANC), facing one of the worst splits in its 96-year history, will today begin choosing a new party leader, the first time that the position has been contested in 55 years.

“Voting will start tomorrow morning and go throughout the day,” Thabo Masebe, an ANC spokesman, told reporters after a long delay caused by a dispute between rival factions over voting procedures.

Nominations for the top job closed several hours later than planned. No new compromise candidates emerged, leaving Thabo Mbeki, the incumbent, looking likely to be defeated by Jacob Zuma, his resurgent ANC deputy, a man he dismissed as the country’s deputy president in 2005 after he was linked to an arms corruption scandal.

The conference opened in the town of Polokwane, in the rolling hills of the northern province of Limpopo, amid raucous and bad-tempered scenes. Allies of the President, who stands accused of ignoring the party rank and file, were booed as they took their seats on the rostrum. Supporters from other factions jeered each other in scenes unthinkable during the long fight against white minority rule.

If Mr Zuma, loved by the rank and file, takes the ANC top job, as looks likely, he also becomes the person most likely to succeed President Mbeki when he stands down as the country’s second black president in 2009.

The 4,075 delegates attending the five-day event were to begin voting late last night. However, Mr Zuma’s supporters objected to plans for electronic voting, clearly believing that the results could more easily be altered. The Mbeki camp opposed manual voting, fearing that delegates would be more likely to be intimidated. The issue took several hours to resolve. “It has been the worst possible start the conference could have had,” an ANC insider said.

Mr Zuma, 65, has fought off corruption and rape charges during a bitter two years of party infighting. He secured 62 per cent of the vote during the nomination process last month and the backing of the influential youth and women’s leagues.

Mr Mbeki, also 65, has to step down after two terms in office, but had hoped that he could secure a third term as ANC leader so as to be able to choose his successor. That looks like a colossal political miscalculation. If he loses, he risks being a lame-duck president. Many commentators say that the Zuma camp would then push for an early poll, gaining him the top job and presidential immunity from prosecution.

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