KAMPALA, Feb. 23 (Xinhuanet) -- Millions of Ugandans braved cold weather and heavy rains Thursday to cast their votes in the country's first multiparty elections in 20 years, choosing a parliament and a president from five candidates, while the contest is thought to be between the incumbent President Yoweri Museveni and main challenger Kizza Besigye.

Ugandans line up early in the morning to wait for ballot boxes at an open air polling station in one of Kampala's constituencies Feb. 23. (Reuters)

    In the capital Kampala, voters lined in the cool and drippy weather to cast their ballots at polling stations, which opened by 7:00 am (0400 GMT) and closed at 5:00 p.m. (1400 GMT) as arranged by Uganda's Electoral Commission, although a few polling stations didn't start to operate until at around 10:00 am due to delays in the delivery of election materials.

    In the afternoon, heavy rains in some parts of Uganda have disrupted the voting exercise for almost an hour. However, at Kampala's Community Flats polling station, voters didn't seemed to care too much about the downpour.

    "I am really happy I can exercised my constitutional mandate of choosing the leader under a multi-party system," said Kamya George, standing under the eave of a flat while a cool drizzle turns rapidly to a drenching shower.

    George, along with several dozens of voters, chose to stick around at the Community Flats polling station up to the closing time to witness the ballots counting procedure.

    All the 19,786 polling stations of the general elections are ordered to count out the ballots on the spot under the surveillance of the public before sealing the results and ballots and send them to the police.

Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni (L) waves to voters upon arrival at his home town in Rusherere Feb. 23. (Reuters)

    STRONG TURNOUT

    According to the Election Community, an estimated 10 million voters turned up to vote on Thursday to elect a president and 284 MPs in the first multiparty presidential and parliamentary elections since political parties were banned in Uganda 20 years ago.

    In the polling station of Ugandan Management Institute, 440 voters turned out to cast ballots compared to the 719 registered, while in another polling station in the community flats, a 63 percentage turnout was counted.

    The government has already declared Thursday a public holiday and security has been tightened to ensure a smooth and peaceful election.

    About 40,000 local and international observers -- including those from the African Union, the European Union and the Commonwealth -- were around the country to monitor Thursday's elections.

    "According to our observers sent out around the country, the election process has been held on course," Coordinator of African Union Observer Mission for Uganda Kourorna Abdoul told Xinhua by telephone.

    "Generally to say, today's polling is peaceful," said Abdoul, "but we can only come to a conclusion after all of our observers come back and put forward their reports."