The origin of non-Debye dielectric relaxation observed widely in network forming glasses is examined. It is attributed to the presence of two polarization centers, which relax in the manner of Debye polarization with a time delay between them. The experimentally observed relaxation therefore appears broadened and is fitted well by the powerful Kohlrausch-Williams-Watts (KWW) stretched relaxation function. It is shown that the relaxation behaviour predicted by the present model is in very good agreement with both the experimental and KWW generated relaxation behaviour. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.