South Africa: early voting begins ahead of main elections on Wednesday

South Africans who received special permission to vote early were casting their ballots Monday ahead of main elections on Wednesday.

Numerous residents sat eagerly at their retirement home to cast their special ballots, avoiding long queues expected on voting day.

The special voting process is for registered voters who are unable to travel to a voting station because of physical challenges such as disability, pregnancy or advanced age.

Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) staff also visited the elderly at their homes to assist them with exercising their right to vote and explained the process to them.

South Africa's election will determine how weary the country has become of the ruling African National Congress party, which has been in power since the end of the apartheid system of white minority rule 30 years ago.

The main election day is Wednesday and people will vote in all nine provinces.

It will decide the makeup of both the national and provincial legislatures.

Results are expected within days.

Nearly 28 million of the population of 62 million are registered to vote in what is only the country's seventh fully democratic national election since apartheid was dismantled.