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Bosnia votes Sunday in high-stakes general election

(ANSA-AFP) - BELGRADE, 02 OTT - Bosnia and Herzegovina votes in general elections on Sunday. The Balkan country is divided into two entities — the Serb-majority Republika Srpska and the Bosniak-Croat Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina — linked by relatively limited central institutions. Voters will elect the three members of the country's Presidency, whose chairmanship rotates among its Bosniak, Croat and Serb members, as well as the 42 members of the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina. They will also vote for the legislatures of the country's two entities: the 98-seat House of Representatives of the Federation parliament and the 83-seat National Assembly of Republika Srpska. In Republika Srpska, voters will additionally elect the entity's president and two vice-presidents, while voters in the Federation will choose representatives to the assemblies of its 10 cantons. The elections will be monitored by accredited domestic observers, representatives of political parties and civil-society organisations, as well as international missions. The OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) has deployed 26 long-term observers across the country and has requested around 300 short-term observers for election day. Observer delegations from the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the NATO Parliamentary Assembly and the European Parliament are also expected to take part. Polling stations close at 19:00, with the Central Election Commission expected to release the first preliminary and incomplete results transmitted by electronic ballot scanners from 20:00 on Sunday. (ANSA-AFP).