Political parties in KwaZulu-Natal will sign an electoral code of conduct tomorrow, committing themselves to peaceful, free and fair elections on April 14.

Conceding that the province poses serious political and electoral challenges ahead of the country's third democratic polls, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) chairperson Brigalia Bam assured the public that authorities were working hard to ensure that the polls were free of violent incidents, intimidation or tension.

To this end, electoral authorities will be in the province to witness the signing. Police have also vowed to crackdown on anyone who might seek to disrupt the polls.

Mediators comprising mainly lawyers and religious leaders have also been established to counteract any hostility between political parties and their supporters. Although the IEC's code of conduct, which will be signed by each party in each province, is not a legal requirement but a moral prerequisite, electoral authorities believe it will get parties smoking the peace pipe during the elections. Already, political tension in the hotly contested province has so far seen complaints lodged with the electoral body. The predominantly rural province has about 3 580 polling stations mostly spread across the rural areas, with pockets of illegal political no go areas which authorities have vowed to eradicate. There are at least 17 000 stations countrywide, which will be in operation on April 14, likely to be made a public holiday to allow about 20,7-million eligible South Africans to cast their votes. Delivering a paper on "Elections 1994-2004, trends, prospects and challenges", at the University of Pretoria today, Bam also appealed to the populace to monitor the elections, rather than rely entirely on foreign observer pronouncement on the outcome. Referring to the trend of elections, Bam described the country's first election in 1994 as "exciting" for the nation, the 1999 polls as having displayed the nation's "commitment to democracy" while this year as "the celebration of ten years of democracy".

Since the dawn of the democratic elections, political parties and the nation have displayed a high level of maturity, she added. So far, there are over a 100 political parties that have registered to contest the elections, with 83 set to battle it out for national seats while 57 will fight for local ones. – BuaNews.