President Thabo Mbeki on Sunday dismissed opposition fears that South Africa's ruling ANC could amend the constitution to perpetuate itself in power if it wins a two-thirds majority in elections next month.
Mbeki told a campaign meeting in the north-east that none of the proposals the African National Congress has made for the April 14 elections needed a constitutional amendment.
"You can look at the proposals of the ANC. None of them requires a constitutional change," Mbeki told a townhall gathering at Nelspruit near the Mozambique and Swaziland borders.
The opposition fears Mbeki might be contemplating a constitutional change to enable him to stay in power beyond the statutory two five-year terms.
A number of African leaders, notably in Namibia, Togo and Gabon have rammed such changes through their rubber-stamp parliaments.
Mbeki, who succeeded anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela as South Africa's second black president in 1999, is expected to lead the ANC to victory in next month's elections, giving him a second term ending in 2009.
Mandela said last year he was certain his successor would not follow other African leaders in seeking to extend his stay in office.
The ANC fell one seat short of a two-thirds majority in the 1999 election, the second since the country's first non-racial poll in 1994 ended apartheid white rule and brought Mandela to power.
The ruling party now holds 268 of the 400 parliamentary seats up for grabs, thanks to defections from the opposition.
It also controls every province, except KwaZulu-Natal.
Mbeki said if the ANC won a two-thirds majority at the polls, that would only reflect the will of the people.
"The will of the people of South Africa must be expressed freely," he told the mixed gathering of middle-class blacks and a significant number of whites and Asians.
"What will threaten democracy is an attempt to limit the expression of that will."
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