The decision to nominate Reverend Mvume Dandala as Cope's presidential candidate was unanimous after "long and hard" discussions, he revealed on Tuesday.

"The principle of Cope is that Cope will always try and find people it believes are suitable to do a particular job at any single time," he told SABC radio.

"I was approached, this was discussed long and hard within Cope, and, as we saw, at the meeting of the national committee, there was a unanimous view that this request should be put to me to be the presidential candidate.

"I think people need to realise that equating the president of the party with the presidential candidate is something that, in other countries, is accepted," added Dandala.

Congress of the People leader Terror Lekota on Monday officially announced that Dandala would be the party's presidential candidate, denying reports of in-fighting.

Meanwhile, news reports on Tuesday morning suggested that the rector of the University of Stellenbosch, Russel Botman, had declined a nomination by Cope to be its Western Cape premier candidate.

Last week, Reverend Frank Chikane, director general in the presidency, declined a Cope nomination for Gauteng premier.

Lekota, a former ANC veteran, started Cope after public disagreements with the ruling African National Congress, partly over its decision in September last year to recall former president Thabo Mbeki from office.

Sapa