Iran Press/Europe: Becirevic, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) member who was backed by 11 opposition civic-oriented parties, won 55.78% of the votes over Bakir Izetbegovic, whose nationalist Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) Party of the Democratic Action (SDA) party has been in power since the end of the war in 1996.
Izetbegovic, who according to the election commission won 39.31% of the votes, conceded defeat late on Sunday.
The voters would also get to elect among candidates running for the country's 12 parliaments on lower government levels.
All of the election posts, including 21 posts set up abroad by Bosnia and Herzegovina's embassies, were open since early morning with some sporadic delays of less than half an hour, said the Central Election Commission on Sunday.
"We will give our best to present the preliminary results by midnight today, and 80 percent of the final count will be announced in the early morning on Monday," said Suad Arnautovic, president of the Central Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Voters also elected 181 members of the parliaments of the country's two entities, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (98 seats) and the Republika Srpska (83 seats).
The entity of Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina consists of ten cantons, and every canton has its own assembly, totaling 289 seats. The voters of the Federation will get to vote only for candidates in their own canton.
A record number of 7,258 candidates, including 17 independent candidates, from 72 political parties and 38 coalitions,are running for public office in this year's general elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
These are the eighth general elections since 1996, as Bosnia and Herzegovina got its Constitution as a part of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in the country, also known as the Dayton peace agreement, which put an end to the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia.
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