German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and his major challenger Angela Merkel Sunday cast their ballots in the general election.

Waving and smiling to voters and reporters, Schroeder, chancellor candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SPD voted at his Hannover constituency at 11:00 a.m.local time (0900 GMT) in the company of his wife Doris.

About one hour later, a smiling Merkel, chancellor candidate of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), voted at her constituency in central Berlin.

Poll stations were opened to voters at 08:00 a.m. (0600 GMT) on a day of typically fine Autumn weather. The first exit polls are expected at 06:00 p.m.(1600 GMT).

The country, with around 62 million registered voters, is divided into 328 electoral districts, each having roughly 180,000 voters. The voters will choose 598 Bundestag (lower house of parliament) members from among 3,648 candidates and pick one from the 25 candidate parties.

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

The number of seats a party can have in the Bundestag will be determined by the percentage of votes the party wins in the second ballot.

The latest survey prior to the election showed that the party alliance led by Merkel enjoyed a slim lead.

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

The SPD, led by Schroeder, could win about 32 to 34 percent, while its junior partner, the Green Party, could gain 6-7 percent, the survey showed.

But the survey also showed that about 30 percent of the voters remained undecided on the eve of voting, with both Merkel and Schroeder vowing to fight for every single one of them.

Schroeder promised the voters that he would retain the generous social benefits and continue reforms while Merkel said she would cut taxes and reduce bureaucracy to free up the market.

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

Source: Xinhua