"The situation is explosive," Jeff Redebe, Natal head of Nelson Mandela's African National Congress, told a Johannesburg news conference.
"Unless the TEC moves quickly to seize control of KwaZulu, many lives will be lost and the election process is in danger of being sabotaged."
Jacob Zuma, the senior ANC leader in the province where ANC and Inkatha supporters have been fighting for 10 years, told the same news conference Buthelezi was involved in an orchestrated plan to stop the elections.
"The TEC has to ensure that free and fair elections take place in the area," he said.
At least 80 people have been killed in five days of political unrest in KwaZulu-Natal townships and rural areas, police said Wednesday.
More than 10,000 have died since the struggle for supremacy between pro-ANC and pro-Inkatha Zulus began in the region in 1984. Buthelezi is boycotting South Africa's first all-race elections on April 26-28, demanding virtual autonomy for the province.
The government and the TEC on Wednesday appointed joint administrators to run another black homeland, Ciskei, following the resignation of military ruler Brigadier Oupa Gqozo.
Gqozo resigned, saying he feared a bloodbath after a revolt by police and civil servants fearful for their pay and pensions when apartheid-created homelands disappear after the elections.
Similar demands by public officials toppled Bophuthatswana's leader Lucas Mangope nearly two weeks ago.
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