In this story:

• First national voters' roll
• Fewer whites have proper papers
• Record numbers lining up
• Related stories and sites

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (CNN) -- As President Nelson Mandela launched his party's campaign on Saturday with a bitter attack on crime and corruption, South Africans were fighting red tape for the right to vote next year.

"Among our country's major challenges are crime, joblessness and corruption," Mandela said, kicking off the 1999 election campaign for his African National Congress (ANC).

But a more immediate challenge for South Africa's civic-minded citizens was registering to vote in what will be the country's second democratic poll.

Standing in lines that snaked through government offices, many would-be voters lost the battle with bureaucracy and sent home because they lacked the proper documents or the correct number of photos.

First national voters' roll

The government's plan is to create the first national voters' roll by registering 25 million people in three days, November 20-22.

To register, people must use bar-coded identification books introduced in 1986 to gradually replace the older versions. But millions of voters lack the documents.

Given the long lines and confusion about the process, it is unlikely that many of them will have the proper identification, or a special receipt saying they applied for one in time.

Fewer whites have proper papers

The problems with bar-coded identification books could have political consequences. Fewer whites, the bulwark support of opposition parties, have the proper documents than blacks, which could mean a boon for the governing ANC.

During 1994's all-race elections, which ended apartheid, voters only needed to show up on election day with any identification and at any polling place. Registration was scrapped to reduce tension before the historic vote.

Requiring the bar-coded identification to register was the brainchild of the Independent Electoral Commission, which since has tried to reverse the plan after learning about the backlogs.

But the ANC government believes the backlogs are not that bad and has stuck by the idea, inviting criticism that it wants to exclude white voters.

More than 80 percent of blacks have the bar-coded documents, compared with 65 percent of whites.

It was previously more in the interest of blacks to obtain them. As apartheid was ending, many rushed to obtain the bar-coded identification to replace their apartheid-era documents.

Record numbers lining up

Now, record numbers of people are lining up for new identification documents, up 60 percent from last year, said Home Affairs spokesman Manafe Makewla.

That doesn't mean they get them.

A dejected Edwin Rasekwere, 40, who is black, was told at the Home Affairs window he needed a birth certificate from a magistrate's court.

"Maybe I'm going to spend the whole day there," he said.

Gary Gilmore, 46, a white South African, was turned away because he didn't have enough photographs.

"So now I have to decide if I want to come back into this" line, he said. "And that will depend on my workload next week."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.