South African President Thabo Mbeki lead Wednesday morning more than 20 million voters in casting their ballots in the third democratic and non-racial elections in a bid to get a strong mandate to fight poverty, AIDS and crime.

The 62-year-old incumbent president voted at 7 am (0500 GMT) atthe AGS Church Hatfield voting station, Pretoria, the capital of South Africa.

After his casting, he said, "The break has come. Now it is the time for the people to speak out."

He also called on more than 20 million voters to come out to vote the parties of their choice.

Braving an early morning chill, voters lined up from as early as 3 am (0100 GMT) in some rural areas to cast their ballots for anew national parliament and provincial assemblies.

Juan Mahnargs, a painter, who cast his vote at the same polling station as the president, said he voted for the ruling African National Congress (ANC) because it was his party.

"I'm satisfied with the present situation," he said. "I have a wife and three children, and a job."

The ANC, which under Nelson Mandela ended decades of white minority rule, could even clinch a two-thirds majority in parliament and is battling to take the remaining two of the nine provinces where it does not hold sway.

According to schedule, former president Nelson Mandela is going to vote this morning at a voting station in Transvaal Automobile Club, Johannesburg while former president F W de Klerk will vote in Cape Town.

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, practices 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