South Africans have started voting in a competitive election that could mark a big political shift if the governing African National Congress party loses its majority as opinion polls suggest.

Voters are electing nine provincial legislatures and a new national parliament, which will then choose the country’s next president.

If the ANC gets less than 50% of the national vote it will have to seek one or more coalition partners to govern the country, the first such alliance in the 30 years since it swept to power with Nelson Mandela as its leader at the end of apartheid.