South Africans go to the polls today, ten years after the collapse of apartheid, with the ruling ANC party confident of winning a third term in office. Michael Dynes, left, reports from Johannesburg.

How has the election been fought?

The third national elections since the end of the apartheid era have been fought in an overwhelmingly free and fair manner.

The only potential problem on the horizon is if the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), the Zulu-based party led by Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi, loses in its traditional heartland.

While there has been very little violence to date, the shock of losing in KwaZulu-Natal Province could spark trouble between the IFP and supporters of the ruling African National Congress (ANC).

The ANC has made a big drive to win in KwaZulu-Natal – the only one of South Africa's nine provinces it does not control outright. The IFP has worked hard to fight the challenge – and the result is too close to call.

Thousands of IFP and ANC supporters died in clashes leading up to the first post-apartheid elections in 1994. Although a repeat is unlikely, 20,000 police have been deployed around the province to ensure that political tensions do not deteriorate into violence.

What do polls indicate the result will be?

It looks as though President Thabo Mbeki's ANC will record another landslide victory. The one variable is how high voter turnout will be. In the first national election in 1994, 84 per cent of South Africans voted, while in 1999, that figure dropped to 68 per cent.

Chief Buthelezi has joined forces with Tony Leon, the leader of the predominantly white Democratic Alliance, in an effort to stop the ANC from winning two-thirds of the popular vote – a symbolic margin of victory. I doubt whether they will have done enough to achieve this however.

What policies will the ANC follow if re-elected?

Nelson Mandela became the first black president of South Africa on a platform of political emancipation for non-white South Africans. Mr Mbeki is running his campaign this time on a platform of economic emancipation.

He is promising a huge drive to create jobs for the 20 million largely black South Africans living in crushing poverty. South Africa's poorest have been untouched by the reforms and improvements that have marked ten years of ANC rule. They live in squatter camps dotted across South Africa and have no state support. It is hardly surprising that crime is such a problem.

On South Africa's Aids pandemic, Mr Mbeki's ANC has accepted in principle the argument that anti-retroviral drugs should be distributed to those in need, but progress is still painfully slow. One in nine South Africans are HIV positive and much time has already been wasted. Many have died while the ANC dithered.

What has been the ANC's record in the post-apartheid era?

The ANC must be given credit for developing a liberal constitution and successfully eradicating the racial discrimination of apartheid.

Beyond these successes, the ANC has also created the conditions for a burgeoning black and coloured middle class to develop, which now numbers some 10 million.

It is worth recalling that when the ANC came to power, South Africa was bankrupt. It is now no longer in debt, has enjoyed ten years of stable government, and its economy is growing quickly enough to allow it to begin tackling the significant problems it still faces.

Is the ANC's political dominance bad for South Africa?

The lack of a vibrant opposition is not healthy for South African politics. And it is likely that we will not see a viable opposition developing for another five or ten years. By then it is possible that the ANC will split into conservative black and radical left-wing rumps.

At present however, there is no other viable party for South Africans to turn to. But most still feel a strong allegiance to the party that helped to sweep white-only rule from the country. It took more than 90 years and to some extent the ANC can rest on its laurels.

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