The excitement has been building for weeks and now the most important phase of the openSUSE Board elections begins today – Election Time!

Two seats are open for election by members of the openSUSE Project. The first seat is vacated by Henne Vogelsang who has completed his two-term limit. The second seat is currently held by Manu Gupta, appointed to fill in for Peter Linnel who stepped down in August of 2012. Both seats are for a two-year term that begins in January 2013 and ends in January 2015.

How to Vote

If you are a current member of the openSUSE Project, you will receive an email with instructions on how to vote via openSUSE Connect polling system. You must be a member in good standing on or before 27 November 2012. If you have not yet received an email within the next 24 hours, please contact the Election Officials committee at election-officials@opensuse.org.

Each eligible voter will be given two votes to cast, one for each seat to be elected in this cycle.

Voting begins today and concludes at 23:00 UTC on 16 December 2012.

But I can’t decide!

With 8 excellent candidates running for two seats, we feel your pain. Luckily, there’s two ways to learn more about the candidates.

Option 1: Platforms and Blogs

Read the candidates platforms and blogs here.

Option 2: Live Q&A Debate

Tomorrow, Thursday at 15:00 UTC (what’s my timezone?), candidates will gather in the #opensuse-project channel on Freenode IRC network. A two hour session, moderated by the Election Officials, this will be an opportunity for you to ask questions live .

Can’t make it, no problem. We will post transcript of the debate here and on the mailing lists. Got a question you want to ask but can’t make it? Post your question in the comment section below and we’ll make sure the question gets asked during the debate.

Thank you, openSUSE Election Officials

With special thanks to Marcus Moeller for creation of artwork banner.