At schools and churches, community halls and municipal buildings shivering people began their long wait to vote for a president to succeed the revered Nelson Mandela and legislators in the national and nine provincial governments.

At 7 a.m., when polls across the nation opened, it was a frigid four degrees but by noon a hot winter sun beat down on the seemingly endless queues.

But, there was virtually none of the violence and chaos of 1994. Although the polls close at 9 p.m. today, only about 10 percent of the nation's 18.3 million registered voters had marked their ballots for one of the 26 parties contesting the election which the African National Congress will certainly win by a huge majority, perhaps even the coveted two-thirds needed to change the Constitution.

A SARDC team visited polling stations in Soweto, Johannesburg, Alexandra, Hillbrow, Beria, Yeoville and Sandton. The patience and good humour of those people who had been standing in dusty streets for five hours with many hours still to go before casting their complicated ballots was amazing.

At Inkaneng Primary School in Diepkloff, Soweto voters were queued up for almost half a kilometer, snaking around trees and outbuildings as they shuffled foot-by-tired-foot to the school hall. By 9 a.m. 356 of 2,500 had passed through and most of those had been at the school since dawn.

Inside the school, the wearisome process of identification, checking the infamous bar-codes and inking of fingers took place before the watchful eyes of party agents from ANC, the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) and the Pan-African Congress (PAC). Independent observers watched the whole operation run by agents of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) charged with running the logistical nightmare. More than 225,000 people have been hired across the country to ensure a smooth poll.

It was a national holiday in South Africa and the usually jammed streets of downtown Johannesburg were virtually empty with rarely a hawker in sight. Reports from across the country reported the same calm patience aside from occasional random acts of violence from the volatile KwaZulu-Natal province where two women were shot to death at Richmond in separate acts of violence.

Overhead IEC, police and military helicopters maintained a watchful eye and on the ground some 100,000 police and military were present, but unobtrusively. In the high-life centre of Johannesburg, only 500 of some 8,000 had voted by mid-morning, the remainder stood quietly amid the usual bustle and hustle of Hillbrow at Christ Church, surrounded by high-rises and shops.

People complained, but good-naturedly about the long wait -- "no breakfast, no lunch, maybe no supper," said one cheerful granny, resting her aching feet on a nearby bench.

"The scene is very quiet but the verification process is too slow," said Charles Mackett, the poll's presiding officer.

In nearby Beria at Barmatoo School, voters were stretched along four city blocks. In the multi-racial suburb, young and old, male and female illustrated the rainbow society as it rubbed shoulders to ensure democracy worked for all of them. "There, I've done my duty, my back is killing me but I've done it," exclaimed one smartly-dressed woman leaving the school.

Yeoville, one of the city's most cosmopolitan central suburbs, had huge queues snaking back and forth around the Yeoville Recreation Centre. This poll had opened late due to an unsubstantiated bomb scare which the demolition experts pronounced a hoax. But it delayed the start.

Sathi Govender, the presiding officer, said the 8,497 eligible voters would likely not be processed by the 9 p.m. deadline but he explained that everyone still in a queue by closing time would be allowed to vote since the Electoral Act allows for extensions due to unforeseen circumstances. He complained of a shortage of staff.

Perhaps Alexandra has a special place in the hearts of many squatting in squalor as it does next door to glittering Sandton. At Carter Primary School the queue was endless, at least a kilometre long and "moving slower than a snail with somone standing its tail," joked one man. Another complained of thirst and hunger. The stench of garbage, clouds of dust and a cold night hadn't deterred the voters -- many dressed in their Sunday best -- although by noon only 326 voters had passed through the razor wire into the school and out again.

An obviously harrassed Helen Modisane was facing another 6,000 before the end of the day. "People are taking very long to mark their ballots -- sometimes 10 or 15 minutes -- and the checking process is absurd, it is so complicated," she said before rushing off the solve yet another crisis.

Down at Pretoria's Show Grounds which is election centre, staff are still scurrying around putting finishing touches to the high-tech operation. It is a far cry from April 1994 when the death toll the day before the election ran into scores when right-wing bombs exploded in the streets of Johannesburg and political rivalry too often ended in bloodshed.

This time round, IEC chairperson Brigilia Bam told us her greatest anxiety is over the satellite link, which caused IEC's computer network to crash three times during dry runs.

The network is one of three systems used to verify results from polling stations across the country, and its failure could delay the vote-counting process. Another high tech problem was telephones. Some 50,000 calls had been received by IEC's 350 operators while cell phones were ringing everywhere in blue carpeted corridors.

But, out in the snaking queues, hi-tech was of little interest. Finding the correct registration booth or even polling station was a nightmare out in rural areas, as well as the townships of Soweto. Getting enough voting materials to remote areas by helicopter and truck has been difficult.

However, there will not be a second day of voting tomorrow (Thursday), according to Deputy Chief Chief Electoral Officer Norman du Plessis except in cases where voters were still in queues.

Mandela cast his vote at 7 a.m. promptly and, according to one story, has disappeared to a hideout not even he knows. "The wife (Graca Machel) has taken over," an aide confirmed.