African National Congress Youth League spokesman Nkosinathi Nomatiti said the ANC provincial executive committee (PEC) dissolved the conference on Monday night after tallying the votes for the region's leadership.

"The PEC came out after counting the ballots, and said that they think some sort of fraud had taken place in the vote," he said.

"They had a pre-determined outcome in mind, and when that outcome did not happen they came up with a lot of things to say. How can there be that fraud if they were involved in the process?"

He said the PEC dissolved the conference allegedly because the votes outnumbered the number of delegates present at the conference.

The provincial ANC could not be reached for comment.

Business Day reported on Tuesday that the electoral commission at the conference discovered that votes were cast by 591 delegates, instead of the 587 adopted by the plenary on Monday.

"As the provincial executive committee, we saw the conference adopted wrong credentials, which ploughed it into crises. We then advised that the conference be reconvened for another time," ANC provincial spokesman Mlibo Qoboshiyane told the newspaper.

It reported that according to unnamed sources in the conference, as well as an sms which circulated among delegates, regional chair Thandekile Sabisa, who was allegedly pushing for a change in the national leadership, defeated William Ngozi, who is allegedly part of the Zuma lobby group, by 296 votes to 295.

The conference, which was held at the weekend, ended on Sunday after allegations that some of the membership figures were inflated, and that there were several "ghost" delegates.

The outcome of the election would be integral to President Jacob Zuma's bid to retain the leadership of the party at its national congress in Mangaung at the end of the year.

The region is the largest in the Eastern Cape, and the second largest ANC region in the country after eThekwini in KwaZulu-Natal -- Zuma's home province.