If South Africans were to vote now, the ANC would get the votes of 74 percent of decided voters, the Sunday Times reported.

This was five percent more than the 2004 elections. According to the survey by Plus 94 Research the ANC would get majorities of between 80 and 82 percent in the Northern and Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, the North West, Mpumalanga and Limpopo.

It would get 54 percent in the Western Cape, 57 percent in Gauteng and 73 percent in the Free State.

More than 65 percent of black voters had decided who to vote for, compared to 54 percent of whites and 40 percent of coloureds.

Of the decided voters the ANC was the preferred party for 84 percent of blacks, 15 percent of whites, 50 percent of coloureds and 47 percent of Indians.

The research was conducted between the last two weeks of October and mid-November. A total of 3500 face-to-face interviews were conducted in 3500 homes in all nine provinces. Twenty-nine percent of the sample was conducted in rural areas, 61 percent in urban areas.

The survey also found that the ANC splinter group, the Congress of the People, would get about one percent of the support of decided voters. It might however get the backing of up to nine percent of undecided voters, the report read.

According to the research voters, especially black ones, still felt indebted to the ANC. Not voting for it would amount to a betrayal of struggles heroes like Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu.

Plus 94 chief executive Sifiso Falala was quoted by the Sunday Times as saying: "From what I can deduce from the research... the ANC appears to be encoded in the genes of the people of South Africa."