SDS LEADER CALLS INT. DIPLOMATS TO RECOGNISE "NEW REALITY" IN BOSNIA

SARAJEVO/BANJA LUKA/MOSTAR - Senior officials of the Serb Democratic Party (SDS), founded by Radovan Karadzic wanted by the UN war crimes tribunal, on Sunday stated that their party won the general elections, and the SDS current leader, Dragan Kalinic, called on the international community to recognise "the new reality" of the rule of national parties in Bosnia-Herzegovina. #L# "This is the beginning of the new reality in Bosnia-Herzegovina", Kalinic said in Banja Luka on Sunday afternoon asserting that his party won between 45 and 47 percent of the votes in the Serb electorate. The SDS candidate for the Bosnian collective presidency, Mirko Sarovic, is likely to win the election. The (Muslim) Party of Democratic Action (SDA) also proclaimed itself as the winner of Saturday's polls, although this success at the election did not automatically opened up a possibility for it to constitute new authorities at the state or entity levels. "At these elections the SDA registered its full victory at all the levels of authorities, including the Bosniak (Muslim) member of the Bosnian collective Presidency," the SDA leader, Sulejman Tihic said at a news conference in Sarajevo on Sunday afternoon. Besides its success at the state level and in the (Croat-Muslim) Federation, the SDA believes it will be the strongest non-Serb party in the Republic of Srpska as well. Tihic was presented at the conference as the new Bosniak (Muslim) member of the three-man Bosnian Presidency. The strongest party in the Croat electorate - the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) - on Sunday afternoon confirmed earlier returns saying that the HDZ had mustered between 70 and 85 percent of the votes counted from the 60 percent of the polling stations in the Federation. At a news conference in Mostar, the HDZ expressed the absolute confidence that its candidate, Dragan Covic, would take the seat of the Croat member in the Bosnian Presidency.