Voting began Wednesday morning in South Africa's third non-racial and democratic elections.

South Africans of all colors went to some 17,000 polling stations across the country to cast their ballots. Voting started at 7 am (0500 GMT) and is scheduled to conclude at 9 pm (1900 GMT).

More than 20 million South Africans, compared to some 18.2 million in the 1999 general elections, are registered to cast their votes in this year's elections.

According to the Independent Electoral Commission, there are also 1,475 South Africans registered to vote in foreign countries like Britain and Australia.

President Thabo Mbeki, the country's second black president, isamong more than 8,000 candidates from 37 political parties to run for 400 seats of the national parliament and 434 seats of provincial legislatures.

The first round of vote counting results is expected to releaseat about 11 pm (2100 GMT) at the national results operations center in Pretoria.

South Africa's president is elected by parliament and the vote is scheduled for April 23, when the 400-member National Assembly is sworn in.

South Africa, with a population of 45 million, of whom 76.7 percent are blacks, practises an electoral system called proportional representation, under which, representation a party receives in the legislature is in proportion to the percentage of votes it obtains in the general elections. Voters cast their ballots for the legislature, before members of parliament elect president.

Source: Xinhua