The Electoral Commission reported an enthusiastic start to voting in Namibia's 13 regions, with minor glitches-a few attributed to heavy rains.

In Groot-Aub, an outlying rural post 45 kilometers south of Windhoek, scores of villagers lined-up as early as 4.00hrs in the morning, three hours ahead of the official opening of voting. More than 300 of the 2000 registered voters in the area had cast ballots by 10.00hrs.

The presiding officer at Aris, a polling station in the southern ends of Windhoek rural, described the turn-out as "better than 1994". Urban and rural constituencies generally reported a favourable pattern for the first day.

President Sam Nujoma, whose party the South West People's Organisation(SWAPO) is favoured to win, was among the first to vote at Suiderhof Primary School in Windhoek east.

Early reports from the Caprivi strip, a northern zone destabilised by secessionist attacks last August, indicate that voting began without incident.

"Most(polling stations in the Caprivi) started on time, by 8.00hrs about 214 had cast their votes at one polling station in the centre of the town", said, Peter Mietzner, Chief Media Liaison Officer for the Electoral Commission.

He told journalists heavy rains in the eastern parts caused a few polling stations to open late. Windhoek experienced a late afternoon downpour, but voters waited patiently for the rains to let up.

"No incidence of intimidation have so far been reported and the general consensus is that the time for electioneering is over and Namibians are now going to vote", he said.

Across the country, most of the 850,000 plus registered voters are expected to participate and officials hope for a better turn-out than in the last elections five years ago. Voting continues wednesday.

Coming from a harsh history of oppression by the then Apartheid South Africa, Namibians voted Swapo, the party that led a protracted liberation war, into power in the 1989 pre-independence polls. Swapo was retained with a two thirds parliamentary majority in 1994.

South Africa was granted permission to administer the former German territory in 1919 by the League of Nations,soon after the first world war. But the apartheid state refused to cede power to the League's successor, the United Nations, despite a vote by the UN general assembly in 1967, to terminate its mandate. Namibia finally gained independence in 1990, in the wake of increased international pressure.

Some political analysts here believe the post-colonial euphoria is fading and that the entry on the scene of the Congress of Democrats(CoD) led by former Swapo member and diplomat Ben Ulenga may mark a "watershed" in Namibian politics.

While nearly all analysts agree that CoD is unlikely to unseat Swapo, they believe the new party might prevent the ruling party retaining its two thirds majority in parliament.

In 1994, Swapo's popularity was underlined by an emphatic win: it took 53 of the 72 elective seats, the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance(DTA) 15, the United Democratic Front(UDF) 2, Democratic Coalition of Namibia (DCN) 1 and Monitor Action Group 1.