Zambians went to polls today to select a successor to late President Levy Mwanawasa, who died in August in France after a stroke.

Polling officially start at 6:00 a.m. (0400 GMT) and close at6:00 p.m. (1600 GMT). About 4 million registered voters are expected to cast their ballots in the 6,456 polling stations across the country.

Dozens of voters formed a queue in front of the polling station set up at the Jacaranda Basic School in the south of the capital Lusaka.

Officials of the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) said they came at about 5 a.m. (0300 GMT) in the morning to prepare for the election, so the station opened as scheduled.

Mudenda brothers became one of the first voters to exercise their voting rights. "I vote for someone who will help us out as unemployment is my major concern. I hope under the new leadership, everybody in Zambia can find something to do," said the 26-year-old Clive Mudenda. The youth who has not got a job refused to identify the exact candidate he voted for.

His younger brother Chester ruled out the possibility of post-election violence. "If undesired one were elected, people will feel angry and talk about it for two days. Finally they will accept the results as Zambia is a peace-loving country. "

After the close of the poll, the counting of the votes will be done at the polling stations. The final results will only be announced on receipt of all the election outcomes from all the 150constituencies.

Receiving and verification of election results is expected to take place from Oct. 31 to Nov. 2. Publication of results will take place from Nov. 3 to 9.

The ECZ has invited observers from different parts of the world to monitor the by-election, including those from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the African Union.

Masthkilisana Fakudze, observer from the SADC, said the election has proceeded in a free and fair way so far.

Mwanawasa was the first Zambian president who passed away in office. According to the constitution of the southern African country, elections must be held within 90 days of the president's office becoming vacant.

A total of four candidates have thrown their hat in the ring. Three front-runners are Acting President Rupiah Banda who was Mwanawasa's deputy, Michael Sata of the main opposition party Patriotic Front and Hakainde Hichilema who heads the second largest opposition party in Zambia.

The other one is Godfrey Miyanda, vice president in former president Frederick Chiluba's administration. Miyanda represents the Heritage Party while Hichilema was fielded by the United Party for National Development.

Analysts believe two major rivals of the race are the 71-year-old Banda and Sata of the same age.

Banda has gained landslide supports from the ruling party, the Movement for Multi-Party Democracy (MMD), for his nomination as the party's candidate to contest in the by-election. After winning the candidacy, the veteran has repeatedly stressed the commitment to continuing the policies of the Mwanawasa administration.

Banda said before the election that the ruling MMD government has the responsibility to fulfill the promises made by Mwanawasa. He said the party should be given time to remain in government as it still has not fulfilled all its promises.

The political veteran also has expressed confidence that he would win in the race.

Meanwhile, opposition candidate Sata has been quoted as saying he would move the concentration of Zambia's foreign policy from developed countries to fellow developing countries, if elected.

That represents a striking change of Sata compared with his campaign promise against foreign investors in the presidential election in 2006.

The presidential term is five years in Zambia. The winner in the by-election will wrap up the tenure left by Mwanawasa which is expected to end by 2011.