The African Union (AU) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) declared South Africa's fourth non-racial elections free and fair on Friday.

Elections were conducted in compliance with guidelines adopted by all SADC countries, said SADC mission leader Balefi Tsie and AU observer mission leader Salim Ahmed Salim.

But, speaking at the national election centre in Pretoria, both said they had noted some problems.

Tsie said the team of 14 observers was concerned about campaigning on election day.

"Campaigning material was still visible and paraded around on polling day," he said, recommending that this needed to be addressed by the Independent Electoral Council (IEC).

He said the national and provincial ballot papers needed to be more distinguishable from each other as this had appeared to cause confusion on voting day. Some voters did not know in which box to place their ballots.

Also, it was important that all voting stations had two ballot boxes for both the national and provincial ballots.

Salim said there had been some minor logistical problems as well as irregularities, however none had affected the voting process adversely.

These included long queues which led to voter frustration and people who had voted at stations where they had not registered.

This caused a number of delays on polling day as some stations had run out of ballot papers due to an increase in unexpected voters.

He also criticised the display of party identities and party literature within the perimeters of voting stations.

"We believe that this goes against the spirit of Article 108 of the Electoral Act 73 1998 prohibiting certain political activities on voting day," said Salim.

However, both missions were unanimous in their support that despite the hiccups, the elections had indeed been free and fair.

IEC chair Brigalia Bam said she accepted the recommendations and that they would considered seriously.

She added jokingly however that while the recommendations were important she also had a list of her own to improve the next elections.

"Oh yes, oh yes, I can do a long list and outdo the observers," she said smiling.