SARAJEVO, Oct 5 (Hina) - Most polling stations in Bosnia-Herzegovina were opened on time on Saturday morning and the voting has been proceeding without any problems, the head of the Bosnia-Herzegovina Electoral Commission, Lidija
Korac, said in Sarajevo.
SARAJEVO, Oct 5 (Hina) - Most polling stations in Bosnia-
Herzegovina were opened on time on Saturday morning and the voting
has been proceeding without any problems, the head of the Bosnia-
Herzegovina Electoral Commission, Lidija Korac, said in Sarajevo.
#L#
Korac told reporters that 95 percent of 4,106 polling stations were
opened at 7 am, while several municipalities were late due to
technical reasons.
All polling stations that were not opened on time will stay open
longer, Korac said.
Polling stations were not crowded in the first morning hours, but
Korac believes the turnout will be good.
The interior ministries of the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina
and Republika Srpska stated that no incidents had been reported at
any of the polling stations.
This year's general election in the country is being secured
exclusively by local police with the assistance of international
police forces and, for the first time, without the Stabilisation
Force (SFOR).
Polling stations will be open until 7 pm and the Electoral
Commission will announce preliminary results on Sunday evening.
Korac said the elections would be regular regardless of the
turnout, in line with the Election Law.
For the first time since the signing of the Dayton agreement in
1995, voters in Bosnia-Herzegovina have the opportunity to elect
bodies of authority in line with an election law adopted by the
country's parliament.
The elections will determine the composition of the state
presidency, the lower house of the state parliament, and the
parliaments of the two entities, as well as the composition of the
assemblies of ten cantons in the Federation and the president and
vice-presidents of Republika Srpska.
Forecasts so far indicate that the battle for executive authority
will be waged between moderate parties, headed by Zlatko
Lagumdzija's Social Democrats and Haris Silajdzic's Party for
Bosnia-Herzegovina and a bloc of three national parties - the
Croatian Democratic Union, the Serb Democratic Party and the Party
of Democratic Action.
A total of 11.4 million convertible marks, mostly foreign
donations, were secured for this year's vote.
(hina) rml