As voting got under way in South Africa yesterday, a boycott call by radical Muslim groups appeared to have failed.
Hundreds of Muslim voters queued patiently at polling stations in and around Cape Town, the heartland of the country's 1.2 million-strong Muslim community.
Those voting denounced calls by the leader of the Islamic Unity Convention, Imam Achmat Cassiem, for them to boycott the polls on the grounds that no South African party deserved their trust.
"As far as I am concerned, my religion tells me to vote," said Mr Mohammed Zain Mustapha, a retired man living in Cape Town's mainly Muslim suburb of Athlone.
He said Muslims in South Africa should not complain about life in the country as their religious freedom was not under threat.
"Jerusalem, Turkey, Cairo - I have been to those places and we have it better here," he said. "It is every citizen's duty to work for the welfare of our country."
At the Ryland High School polling station in Athlone, electoral officer, Mr Majib Govender, said most of the 500 people to have passed through the voting station were Muslims.
A voter, Mr Abdullah Ebrahim, said it was critical for Muslims to vote. "The more we can get our people into parliament the better," he said.
In nearby Mitchell's Plain, a sprawling suburb with a large Muslim community, a young mother, Ms Sumaja Osman, cast her ballot.
She said: "It is the only way things are going to get better, if we vote."
The President, Mr Nelson Mandela, on Tuesday called on the Muslim community to vote, saying the Iranian President, Mr Mohammad Khatami, had passed on the message that they should not boycott the poll.
Nearly two weeks ago South Africa's Muslims received a similar message from the Libyan leader, Col Muammar Gadafy, who exhorted them to vote for Mr Mandela's African National Congress.