SARAJEVO, June 17 (Hina) - Political parties which make up the current ruling Alliance for Changes in Bosnia-Herzegovina failed to reach agreement on running together for the elections, set up for 5 October. The talks on the
restoration of the alliance will be held after the polls end.
SARAJEVO, June 17 (Hina) - Political parties which make up the
current ruling Alliance for Changes in Bosnia-Herzegovina failed
to reach agreement on running together for the elections, set up for
5 October. The talks on the restoration of the alliance will be held
after the polls end. #L#
"No agreement has been reached. Social Democratic Party (SDP)
representatives reiterated the stand of this party's leadership
that the SDP would stand for the elections on its own," the
Republican Party's president Stjepan Kljujic told reporters after
the Alliance co-ordinating body's session on Sunday evening.
According to the deadlines set by the Bosnian Electoral Commission,
parties should register possible coalitions by 17 June, and list
names of their candidates by 2 July.
Small parties in the Alliance wanted to reach agreement at least on
the support to joint candidates for Bosnia's collective
Presidency.
However, no representative of the Party for Bosnia-Herzegovina
(SBiH), a member of the Alliance, appeared on Sunday's meeting, and
this party previously decided to apply the candidature of its
leader Haris Silajdzic for the Muslim (Bosniak) member in the
Presidency.
The leadership of another member of the Alliance, the New Croatian
Initiative (NHI), on Sunday held a meeting in Banja Luka to discuss
the preparations for the election, but the replacement of its
member, Nikola Grabovac, from the office of the Croat-Muslim
federal Finance Minister, was on the top of the agenda.
The NHI leadership decided to ask the replacement of Grabovac's
Deputy Sefika Hafizovic as well. The NHI believes that Hafizovic,
an SBiH member, has framed Grabovac to remove him from the
ministerial post.
Grabovac was relieved from the duty at the insistence of the High
Representative to Bosnia, Paddy Ashdown, who believes that
Grabovac is morally responsible for a financial scandal.
The NHI will not probably join small Croat parties in their bid to
oppose the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) at the elections.
Three Croat parties: the Croatian Democratic Union (HDU), led by
Miro Grabovac Titan, the People's Party "With Work Towards
Prosperity", led by Mladen Ivankovic Lijanovic, and the Croatian
Peasants' Party (HSS) led by Ilija Simic, are likely to form a
coalition for the coming elections.
This so-called "Economic Block" will propose Mladen Ivankovic
Lijanovic for the Croat member of the Bosnian Presidency.
Another Croat coalition, called the Croatian Democratic Block,
will include two parties: the Croatian National Community (HNZ) and
the Croatian Christian Democratic Union (HKDU).
It seems that there will be no important coalitions in the Bosniak
side.
The race among Bosniak candidates for the Presidency is likely to be
tight: Silajdzic of the SBiH, Sulejman Tihic, who is the Party of
Democratic Action (SDA) president, and some influential member of
the SDP are to contest for this post.
Leading Bosnian Serb parties have not yet applied their candidates
for the top offices at the state end entity level. The recently
discovered scandal about customs officers having embezzled about
30 million convertible marks from the entity's budget has
undermined an agreement about an informal alliance between the Serb
Democratic Party (SDS) and the PDP, the party of the incumbent
Premier of the Republic of Srpska, Mladen Ivanic.
A total of 56 political parties will contest the coming elections.
(hina) ms