A breakaway faction of the ANC on Saturday vowed to contest elections next year as it unveiled a party logo which borrows colours from the national "rainbow" flag.

"Yes we will fight an election," former African National Congress senior official and the new party's deputy leader Mbhazima Shilowa told media at the logo launch, the Sapa news agency reported.

The party of disgruntled former ANC leaders, which will be officially launched next month, has applied to register with electoral authorities as the Congress of the People (Cope).

The logo features a black circle with a green cross and areas of gold, white, red and blue which feature in the South African flag. The ANC's flag colours are green, black and gold.

The ruling party has already said it will fight the use of the name "Congress of the People" as the term refers to a historic meeting in the 1950s during apartheid.

South Africa's political landscape has been dominated by the ANC since the end of apartheid in 1994 when it brought Nelson Mandela as the country's first democratic president. It holds a majority of around 70 percent in Parliament.

Divisions within the ANC burst into the open after the party leadership forced former South African president Thabo Mbeki to resign in September, sparking the breakaway movement.

The country's main opposition Democratic Alliance also unveiled a new logo Saturday of a sun rising over the "rainbow nation".

"From today, we offer the people of South Africa a government that really can delivery a better future," party leader Helen Zille told supporters.

More than 21.6 million South Africans are signed up to vote in next year's elections after a registration drive last weekend drew a record turn-out, signing up 1 648 189 new voters.

The 2009 election, for which no date has yet been set, will be the fourth since apartheid ended in 1994.

AFP