(3 Oct 2010)
Mostar
1. Wide of Croatian Democratic Union party (HDZ) leader Dragan Covic entering polling station
2. Tilt up of Covic registering with officials
3. Covic in the booth
4. Various of Covic casting ballots
5. Exterior of Covic with his family
6. SOUNDBITE (Croatian) Dragan Covic, Croatian Democratic Union party (HDZ) leader:
"As far as HDZ is concerned, we expect to win these elections. We need 130-thousand votes from the Croat people, which means that we'd have two times more votes then other Croat parties in Bosnia. That is the best for all three nations in Bosnia."
Banja Luka
7. Wide of Nebojsa Radmanovic, Serb candidate for presidency, arriving at polling station in Banja Luka, people applauding
8. Various of Radmanovic registering with officials
9. Radmanovic casting ballot, leaves as people applaud
STORYLINE:
With the top candidates fiercely at odds over Bosnia's future, voters cast ballots on Sunday in elections likely to further entrench their nation's ethnic divisions and threaten possible EU entry.
Some three million voters in a country uneasily split between Serbs, Bosniaks and Croats are choosing from 8,000 candidates for the central and several regional parliaments, the Bosnian Serb presidency and the federal presidency.
Fifteen years after the ethnic war sparked by the breakup of Yugoslavia, and despite five postwar elections, the vote is still expected to fall along ethnic lines.
The campaign has been characterised by harsh rhetoric, with Serbs demanding secession, Croats calling for the possibility of their own autonomous region and Bosniaks - Bosnian Muslims - seeking a stronger central government.
The rivalries have kept Bosnia's government largely at stalemate.
Long and frustrating EU- and US-led negotiations over constitutional changes to simplify the political setup and strengthen the central government were put on ice earlier this year in hopes that it would be easier to find a compromise after Sunday's elections.
But voters appear likely to re-elect the same leaders, setting the stage for another four years of drift and diminishing the possibility of a path to the EU.
The postwar deal split the country into two highly autonomous regions - one for the Serbs and the other shared by the Bosniaks and Croats.
The two regions are loosely linked by a central government, parliament and a three-member presidency.
In addition to parliamentary elections, Bosniaks and Croats will also vote Sunday for the parliaments of the 10 cantons in their ministate, while Serbs will elect the president of their Bosnian republic.
The EU has told Bosnia that if it wishes to join it must create a stronger central government, which the country's Serbs vehemently oppose.
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