VOTERS will choose a collective presidency, parliament and regional assemblies that organisers hope will start the process of reuniting Serbs, Muslims and Croats now split into nationalist ruled sectors carved out by war and ethnic expulsions.
But there is an ominous precedent. Soon after the last Bosnian election in 1992, the country plunged into the bloodiest conflict Europe has seen since the second World War.
The West is counting on Nato's peacekeeping contingent of 55,000 troops to keep a lid on any such repetition.
. Bosnia Herzegovina: one of the six republics in the former Yugoslavia. It is made up of two parts under the Dayton peace agreement. A Muslim Croat federation controls 51 per cent of the territory and is inhabited mostly by Muslims and Bosnian Croats. A Serb republic covers 49 per cent and is home mostly to Bosnian Serbs.
. Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. today but the results are not expected for several days.
. Estimated number of eligible voters: 2.9 million.
. The Dayton peace agreement calls for a national government, with limited powers, for all of Bosnia Herzegovina.
Under it will be separate governments for the Muslim Croat federation and the Serb republic.
The national government will have a three member presidency consisting of a Croat, a Muslim and a Serb, with the one receiving most votes as chairman.
There will be a two chamber legislature: an appointed 15 member upper house divided equally among Muslims, Croats and Serbs and a lower house with 28 members from the federation and 14 from the Serb region.
The Muslim Croat and Serb governments each will have their own president and legislature.
. Municipal elections originally planned for the same day have been cancelled, international monitors called off elections for local posts because of harassment and violence in some cities.