Johannesburg/Gaborone - People in Botswana, the world's biggest producer of diamonds by value, began making their way to the polls Friday to elect a new parliament against the backdrop of recession.

A little over 700,000 people out of some 1.8 million in the vast southern African desert nation are registered to elect 57 members of the National Assembly.

Voting was scheduled to take place between 6 a. m. (0400 GMT) and 7 p. m. (1700 GMT) with the results expected over the weekend. Around 2,000 Batswana living overseas already voted on October 3.

The Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) of President Ian Khama, which has governed the vast desert nation for all of its 43 years of independence from Britain, is expected to easily win re-election.

The party has 45 seats in parliament, against 11 for the Botswana National Front (BNF), the biggest opposition party, and one for the smaller Botswana Congress Party (BCP), which was born out of a split in the BNF around a decade ago.

Botswana is the world's largest producer of diamonds by value.

The BDP owes its popularity to its judicious use of the diamond wealth, which have been used to transform what was one of the world's poorest countries at independence into a middle-income nation, with free healthcare and free education to third level for most.

By contrast with many other African countries Botswana is seen as a model of stability.

Former vice president and ex-Botswana Defence Force commander Khama, 56, son of late founding president Sir Seretse Khama, became president after ex-president Festus Mogae stepped down at the end of two terms in March last year.

If his party wins a majority of 29 seats, Khama will be automatically returned as president for another five years. (dpa)