S.Africa`s COPE Picks Bishop For Election - Paper

The April 22 election is expected to be the most closely contested since apartheid ended in 1994.

South Africa's new COPE party has chosen Methodist bishop Mvume Dandala as its presidential candidate for an April election, the Star newspaper reported on Friday.

A spokesman for COPE, formed by dissidents from the ruling African National Congress (ANC) in December, told Reuters a decision had not been made but that an announcement would be take place later on Friday.

The April 22 election is expected to be the most closely contested since apartheid ended in 1994.

The ANC, in power since then, is widely seen winning the election and making party leader Jacob Zuma president, but it faces an unprecedented challenge from the new Congress of the People (COPE) party.

The Star quoted an unnamed source who attended a COPE leadership meeting as saying Dandala was chosen because he had no political baggage.