SARAJEVO, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina is voting Sunday in presidential and parliamentary elections -- the seventh in the country since the end of the Bosnian War nearly 20 years ago.
At 07.00 (08.00 Turkey time), Bosnia's 3,278,908 registered voters started to queue at polling stations early in the morning to elect three members to the Presidency of the Council -- one Bosniak and one Croat from Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and one Serb from the other entity, Republika Srpska.
Together the members will serve one four-year term. The member with the most votes becomes the chairman, but the chairmanship rotates every eight months to ensure equality.
Elections of local, cantonal and state legislatures are taking place at the same time.
Contesting the election are 65 political parties, 24 independent candidates, and 24 coalitions, with 7,748 candidates contesting 813 seats. This year, there are a greater number of female candidates than ever before; 40 percent of those running for office, as opposed to 33 percent in the previous election.
Bosnia and Herzegovina has two entities, 10 cantons and an autonomous region.
The country's complex political structure, economic crisis, high level of unemployment and long standing political arguments remaining from the war -- in which more than 100,000 people were killed -- make the elections even more critical. Tensions between the main ethnic groups remain high, and some groups have called for secession.
The first results are expected at midnight local time Sunday.
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