Johannesburg  - South Africa's ruling African National Congress leader Jacob Zuma said Tuesday he was gunning for a whopping majority in Wednesday's elections, despite competition from a new party of ANC dissidents.

"All we are looking for is an overwhelming majority," Zuma told reporters on the eve of the country's fourth national and provincial elections since the end of apartheid.

The ANC has campaigned vigorously to avoid losing votes to the four-month-old Congress of the People (COPE), which was born out of a split between party factions loyal to Zuma and ousted ex-president Thabo Mbeki.

The emergence of COPE has injected excitement into the elections, even though the ANC is still expected to easily win and COPE is forecast to take only between 5 and
15 per cent.

Around 2.4 million new voters, mostly young people, have signed to make their mark, raising the size of the electorate to over 23 million.

"There is an energy and excitement about this election that we have not witnessed since our first democratic election in 1994," Zuma said.

The excitement was proof that the ANC had succeeded in remaining relevant, "like a snake that purges itself (of its skin)," he said.

The party has spent 200 million rand (22 million dollars) on helicopters painted in party colours, television ads, mass rallies and a poster blitz to communicate its promises of more jobs, improved healthcare and education and reduced crime and corruption.

Zuma acknowledged the party was generating "great expectations" at a time of slowing growth. South Africa's economy contracted 1.8 per cent in the last quarter of 2008 on the back of falling global demand for its exports.

The party's promises would be implemented "according to the means available. And I'm sure people will understand that," he said confidently.

The 67-year-old former deputy president, who is poised to become president after the election, rubbished suggestions that he was still dogged by suspicion of corruption in connection with a state arms deal.

"There's absolutely no cloud (of suspicion) ... not even the mist!, he insisted, with a laugh.

State prosecutors abruptly dropped charges against him earlier this month, citing political interference in the timing of his indictment under the Mbeki administration.

Their explanation for their decision stoked suspicion they were acting under pressure from the ANC. The opposition has called on voters to deny the ANC another two-thirds majority for fear it might use it to muzzle independent institutions. But Zuma assured for the second time in three days that the ANC would use its expected majority responsibly.

The main opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) wound up its campaign in the Western Cape province, where Cape Town is located. The DA, which is led by Cape Town mayor Helen Zille, hopes to entrench opposition to the ANC by winning control of the province.

COPE's schedule listed its presidential candidate, Methodist bishop Mvume Dandala, was spending his last day courting votes east of Johannesburg.(dpa)