BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA: Bosnia elects men with clashing visions of future

Bosnians have elected leaders with diametrically opposing views on how to run the country after international supervision ends next year, preliminary results of Sunday's (October 1) general election showed. Former wartime foreign and prime minister Haris Silajdzic, the Muslim who wants to abolish the two-entity state in order to unify Bosnia, had an unassailable lead in the race for the Muslim seat on the tripartite state presidency. Bosnia Serb Prime Minister Milorad Dodik, who has warned of seccession if Silajdzic continues to threaten the autonomy and existence of Bosnia's Serb Republic, easily won re-election. Their rhetoric inflamed voters in the Serb Republic and the Muslim-Croat federation in the run-up to Sunday's general election, the fifth since the 1995 Dayton Accords ended the 1992-95 Bosnia war and created a two-party state. "The results are obviously very good for our party, for myself, the question is what to do next. Bosnia and Herzegovina has been divided by aggression and genocide. We have ethnic representation, not citizens' representation; we would like to change it. We would like this to be citizens' country," Silajdzic said amid jubilant supporters on Monday(October 2). Bosnia's presidency has a Muslim, a Serb and a Croat member and the chair rotates. It shares executive powers with the government whose head it nominates. Deeply-divided Bosnians turned out in big numbers to elect politicians who will lead the impoverished Balkan nation after international supervision ends next year. They voted for the state presidency and parliament as well as the president and two vice-presidents in the Serb Republic . They also cast ballots for the assemblies of the two regions and 10 federation cantons. Silajdzic's Serb colleague in the collective presidency will be Nebojsa Radmanovic of Dodik's Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD), who swept the field with 56 percent of votes. "It's already obvious that SNSD (Alliance of Independent Social Democrats) achieved a huge victory, as we had expected," said Dodik. "Mr Nebojsa Radmanovic, our candidate, has won the seat of the Bosnian presidency, that Milan Jelic is president of (the Serb) Republic and that SNSD will have absolute majority in the Serb Republic parliament and House of Representatives of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is a huge responsibility for us. We are not new in politics and we know what it means. We wanted that responsibility and we'll do our best to fulfil expectations of those who have voted for us and to have even more supporters after we end this term," Dodik said. The office of peace overseer Christian Schwarz-Schilling, who can sack officials and impose laws, will shut down in mid-2007. The EU has no plans to withdraw its 6,000 peacekeepers but said on Monday it would reduce their number soon. A successful transition of power to Bosnians after the dismantling of the protectorate set up after the 1992-95 war would demonstrate to Brussels that the former Yugoslav republic can function on its own, boosting its EU membership chances. The election, however, appeared to set the scene for test of of strength between Silajdzic and those who want a single Bosnian nation and Dodik, who insists a federation of two mini-states is the maximum that can be expected. It also yielded a result among Croats that analysts said could increase pressure for a third mini-state. Bosnia's main Croat party, the Croat Democratic Union (HDZ), said Zeljko Komsic of the multi-ethnic Social Democratic Party beat its candidate, Ivo Miro Jovic, in the race for the Croat member of the presidency. HDZ complained that Komsic was elected with the help of Muslim votes in the federation, where voters can choose between a Muslim or Croat member of the presidency, whereas the Serb member is elected in the Serb Republic only. Komsic's election is almost certain to lead to louder Croat calls for a third 'entity', which they say is needed to give them rights equivalent to those of Serbs and Muslims.

ITN Source | October 3, 2006

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