Early results after Sunday voting in Bosnia indicated a possible upset in the race for the Muslim seat in the tripartite presidency, with Bakir Izetbegovic leading the count, dpa reported.
Haris Silajdzic, who has represented the Muslims on the council for years, was lagging behind Izetbegovic after about half of the election districts had reported results.
Izetbegovic, 54, the son of the first president Alija Izetbegovic, held about 33 per cent of the votes in the early counting, putting him ahead of the other candidates.
The two other ethnic leaders who have held the other seats - Serb Milorad Dodik and Croat Zeljko Komsic - appeared headed for re- election.
Voters had also cast ballots for parliaments in the "entities,' the two nearly sovereign administrative units - the Serb Republic (RS) and the Federation Bosnia-Herzegovina (FBH) of Muslims and Croats.
Bosnia has fallen into a political deadlock for years, with the entities holding more power than central institutions, under the agreement that ended the three-year war in 1995 and amid persistent feuding of ethnic leaders.
Muslims, who hold a narrow majority among the population of 3.8 million, Serbs who hold one-third, and Croats have blocked all of the important offices of state with their feuding.
An estimated 3.1 million voters turned out to vote on Sunday, representing about 55 per cent of the electorate, about the same percentage as four years ago, the election commission said.
Final results will be announced late Monday.