SARAJEVO, Sept 30 (Hina) - The results of a public opinion poll in Bosnia which were published on Monday indicate that five days prior to a general election the majority of citizens will give their vote to the incumbent ruling
coalition, which mainly consists of moderate political parties.
SARAJEVO, Sept 30 (Hina) - The results of a public opinion poll in
Bosnia which were published on Monday indicate that five days prior
to a general election the majority of citizens will give their vote
to the incumbent ruling coalition, which mainly consists of
moderate political parties. #L#
The poll, which was conducted last week by the US National
Democratic Institute (NDI), shows that as elections approach, the
popularity of national parties is waning, and that votes go mainly
in favour of Zlatko Lagumdzija's Social Democratic Party (SDP) and
Haris Silajdzic's Party for Bosnia-Herzegovina (SBiH).
The conclusion is that Bosnian citizens are mainly dissatisfied
with the speed at which reforms have been carried out over the past
couple of years, although they are not dissatisfied with the
general direction of the reforms, said Michael Balagus, the head of
the NDI's office in Bosnia.
According to the poll conducted on 1,600 constituents, the SDP is
currently the most popular party in the country, enjoying the
support of 15 percent of the electorate.
The Serb Democratic Party (SDS) comes second, enjoying the support
of 13 percent of the electorate, and is followed by the SBiH and the
Party of Democratic Action (SDA), with 11 percent of the vote each.
The Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) and Milorad Dodik's Party of
Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) may count on the votes of nine
percent of the constituents in the race for seats in the state
parliament.
The SDP is very likely to win the majority of seats also in the House
of Representatives of the parliament of the Bosnian Federation. The
SBiH comes second, followed by the SDA and the HDZ.
The SDS will dominate in the parliament of Republika Srpska,
followed by the SNSD.
As for the race for the state presidency, everything is known. Last
week's poll too confirmed that the three-men body will include
Dragan Covic of the HDZ, Haris Silajdzic of the SBiH and Mirko
Sarovic of the SDS.
Votes from the diaspora will not significantly influence the
electoral outcome even though they have not been covered by the
polls.
Unlike past years, when more than 200,000 Bosnian citizens living
abroad took part in the ballots, this year only 56,000 registered to
vote.
A comparison of the results of the 2000 election and NDI's forecast
for this year indicates that almost all parties are losing in
popularity, particularly national ones.
(hina) ha sb