GABORONE, Oct. 31 (Xinhuanet) -- Botswana President Festus Mogae'sruling party was leading in the general elections held on Saturday,according to initial results announced by the Independent Electoral Commission on Sunday.

    The Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) has won five of the six constituencies where counting has finished, securing five of the 57 elected seats in the National Assembly.

    The five constituencies are Francistown East, Kgalagadi South, Tonota South, Serowe North East, and Mmadinare.

    Vice President Seretse Khama Ian Khama's victory was a foregoneresult as he was unopposed in his constituency of Serowe North West.

    The Botswana National Front came second with one victory in South East-North.

    According to Botswana's electoral law, the leader of the party that wins the majority of the seats in the National Assembly will be proclaimed president by the chief justice but a minority victory would lead to a vote in the assembly to elect the head of state.

    Batswana went to the polls in the diamond-rich southern Africancountry's ninth general elections Saturday, with Mogae widely expected to win reelection.

    More than 552,000 people, or 68 percent of the eligible voters,were registered to cast their ballots at 2,179 polling stations across the country.

    Counting started soon after the Voting concluded at 7:00 p.m. (1700 GMT) on Saturday, but results come a little bit slowly.

    Turnout in this year's elections was expected to be higher thanthat in the 1999 general elections, when 77.1 percent of registered voters cast their ballots.

    Gabanalapo Nkape, an observer from the Botswana Election Support Network, expressed satisfaction with the voting process after touring three polling stations in Gaborone Saturday morning.

    "Everything is just fine," she said.

    Mogae is one of four candidates running for the presidency, andhis ruling BDP and four other political parties have fielded 176 contestants for 57 seats in an expanded parliament.

    Competing with Mogae for the top post are Otsweletse Moupo, of the Botswana National Front (BNF), Otlaadisa Koosaletse, of the Botswana Congress Party (BCP), and Dick Bayford, of the New Democratic Front (NDF).

    The other four political parties that have fielded parliamentary candidates are the BCP, the NDF, the MELS Social Democratic Party (SDP), and the tripartite pact comprising the BNF,the Botswana Peoples Party (BPP) and the Botswana Alliance Movement (BAM).

    The final results of Saturday's voting are expected on Sunday and a swearing-in ceremony to inaugurate the new president is scheduled for Nov. 2.

    It is widely believed that Mogae's BDP, which has been in powerever since the country's independence from British rule in 1966, would clinch the general elections again with the majority of the votes and thus guarantee a second term for Mogae.

    Mogae, who studied economics in Britain before working in senior government posts, first claimed the spotlight as deputy to former Botswana president Quett Masire, then as his successor whenMasire stepped down in 1998.

    He started his first five-year term in office as president in 1999, when the BDP won 33 of the 40 elected seats in the National Assembly.

    Botswana, with a population of 1.76 million and an area of 582,000 sq km, about the size of France, is one of the world's biggestdiamond producers and fastest growing economies, reporting a 7.4 percent growth in 2003 and per capita gross domestic product of more than 3,000 US dollars.

    However, the country has been faced with one of the highest HIV/AIDS prevalence rates in the world in recent years, as more than one in three adult Batswana are infected with HIV or have developed AIDS. Poverty, unemployment, and lack of a diversified economy are also pressing problems in the country.

    In his final campaign appeal released on the eve of the voting,Mogae said both his party and he himself are acutely aware of the challenges that exist, notwithstanding the great progress that hasbeen achieved over the past 38 years.

    He pledged that his party would continue with its historic mission of leading this nation toward the realization of a common vision of a prosperous and productive nation for all its citizens.     

    "If reelected, over the next five years the Botswana DemocraticParty will ensure that the nation as a whole has a greater capacity to compete in the world through further human resource development," he said. Enditem