German voters on Sunday began to cast their ballots for members of the parliament's lower chamber, the Bundestag, which will then elect a new chancellor.

Poll stations were open to voters at 8:00 a.m. (06:00 GMT), and the first exit polls are expected at 6:00 p.m. ((16:00 GMT).

Germany is divided into 328 electoral districts with roughly 180,000 voters in each district. Each voter will cast two ballots,one for the representative in a district and the other for a party.

Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is casting his votes in the northern city of Hannover while his rival, Angela Merkel, leader of the Christian Democratic Union and the Christian Social Union, will cast her ballot in Berlin.

Opinion polls on Friday showed that Merkel's coalition with the liberal Free Democrats had a slim lead in the race.

Source: Xinhua