More than 1.1 million citizens in the Bosnian Serb entity, the Srpska Republic, go to the polls Sunday in early elections for a president, two months after former president Milan Jelic died from a heart attack.

Bosnia's Election Commission validated the candidacies of 10 candidates, nine representing their political parties and one independent.

Political analysts in the Srpska Republic predict three candidates will win the majority of the votes: Rajko Kuzmanovic of the leading Bosnian Serb Party of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD), Mladen Ivanic of the Party of Democratic Progress (PDP) and Ognjen Tadic of the nationalist Serb Democratic Party (SDS).

The president of the entity is elected after one round of voting, according to Bosnia-Herzegovina's election law.

The candidate with a simple majority of votes will win the presidency.

Agencies