Dr Brigalia Bam, Chair of the South African Independent Electoral Commission(IEC) and team leader of the nine-member SADC electoral commissioners'observation group, said the region was keen on entrenching a culture of democracy through cooperation and sharing of experiences.

Formed in 1998, the SADC Electoral Commission's Forum is a union of Election management bodies in Southern Africa, which lends technical, logistical and moral support to member states with a long term aim of raising the standards of election practices.

The Forum has observed elections in Lesotho(1998), Malawi, South Africa and Botswana as part of an on-going regional programme.

Bam said Namibian elections had been conducted 'professionally" and the use of high-technology, supplied by South Africa's IEC, should enhance the delivery of results.

"I visited 18 stations and everything looked fine. People waited patiently to vote, without intimidation. All mobile units were accompanied by party agents...People slept over-night to watch the election material... This is good", she told SARDC in an interview.

South Africa has given Namibia 40 computers and other pieces of equipment, and helped it set up a state-of-the-art results centre, albeit on a smaller scale, but similar in design to Pretoria's mammoth structure used in the June elections.

Results will be faxed into the Directorate of elections headquarters in Windhoek from 13 regions, immediately inputted into a computer network and displayed on cinema-sized screen for media and observers. National radio and television are also carrying live coverage of the results which began trickling in by 11.00hours today.

Bam said South Africa would be prepared to assist member states of SADC with technological outputs, as a way of enhancing efficiency and transparency.

"The technology used in South Africa's June elections helped us alot. The system meets our needs and is very transparent. One problem we have in the region is the new culture of multiparty democracy. These systems are alien and we are struggling to make them fit into our cultural and political contexts", she said.

Electoral Commissioners from the region were using the string of elections in the region to understand the electoral systems and practices adopted by members. Namibia, like South Africa, uses proportional representation at parliamentary elections.

" We have to draw the expertise, not necessarily from Europe but from within SADC. We are therefore meeting with other observer missions to establish what criteria they use to monitor elections. We are also giving technical and moral support to the Namibians", she said.

Namibians are meanwhile anxiously awaiting the preliminary results after two days of voting closed Wednesday night.

The South West African People's Organisation(SWAPO) and incumbent president Sam Nujoma are tipped to win but analysts expect the new opposition party, the Congress of Democrats(CoD) led by ex-diplomat Ben Ulenga to spoil ruling party's chances of retaining its two thirds majority in parliament.

Swapo was retained in the 1994 elections, winning 53 of the 72 elective seats while the rest were shared by four opposition parties.

The ruling party led a protracted war of liberation against Apartheid South African rule, finally succeeding with concerted international support, to see the country to independence in 1990. Swapo won the pre-independence 1989 elections with an overwhelming majority.

Namibia, a German-held territory upto the end of the first world war in 1918, was handed to South Africa to administer in 1919 by the League of Nations, fore-runner of the united Nations.