German voters 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 opened to voters at 08:00 a.m. (06:00 GMT) on a day of typically fine fall weather, and the first exit polls are expected at 06:00 p.m. ((16:00 GMT).

The country is divided into 328 electoral districts, each having roughly 180,000 voters. The around 62 million registered voters will choose 598 Bundestag members from among the 3,648 candidates and 25 parties.

Each individual voter will cast two ballots, one for the representative in a district and the other for a party.

The seat number of a party in the Bundestag will be determined according to the percentage rate the party wins in the second ballot.

Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is casting his vote in the northern city of Hannover and his rival, Angela Merkel, chancellor candidate of the Christian Democratic Union and the Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU), will cast her vote in Berlin.

A final poll prior to the elections showed that the alliance led by Merkel enjoyed a slim lead.

Merkel's CDU/CSU could get 41 percent to 43 percent of the votes, according to the Forsa-RTL TV poll. The Free Democratic Party (FDP), the likely coalition partner of the CDU/CSU, is expected to get 7-8 percent.

The Social Democratic Party (SPD), led by Schroeder, could win about 32 to 34 percent, and its junior partner, the Greens Party, would gain 6-7 percent, the poll showed.

But the poll also showed that about 30 percent of the voters remained undecided, with both Merkel and Schroeder having vowed to fight for every single vote.

German media reports have said that the election result could be too close to call.

Source: Xinhua