SARAJEVO, Oct 7 (Hina) - The results of a general vote in Bosnia-Herzegovina that was held on Saturday have resulted in a major sweep of the country's political scene.
SARAJEVO, Oct 7 (Hina) - The results of a general vote in Bosnia-
Herzegovina that was held on Saturday have resulted in a major sweep
of the country's political scene. #L#
According to data released by the state Electoral Commission, only
several major parties will keep their seats in the two entities'
parliaments while the majority of those which so far had had two to
three parliamentary deputies will operate as extra-parliamentary
Opposition.
Commission chairwoman Lidija Korac said in Sarajevo that based on
the 93.47 percent of votes counted so far one could say that Dragan
Covic, Sulejman Tihic and Mirko Sarovic would make up the
collective state presidency.
Covic, a member of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), has won
109,000 votes, while the second Croat runner up, Mladen Ivankovic,
has won 17.12 percent of the vote. Sulejman Tihic, the candidate of
the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) for the state presidency, is in
the lead with less than 10,000 votes more than the favoured Haris
Silajdzic, so there is a theoretical chance the final results will
change as the votes from four municipalities have not been counted
yet. The Serb seat on the state presidency was won by Mirko Sarovic
of the Serb Democratic Party (SDS), with 178,000 votes. This is
80,000 votes more than the number of votes won by his rival Nebojsa
Radmanovic of the Party of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD).
Dragan Cavic, an SDS candidate, won in the race for the President of
Republika Srpska with a similar vote ratio.
Ten parties have secured seats in the House of Representatives of
Bosnia-Herzegovina, of which only four are from the Croat-Muslim
entity. The SDA won the most votes in the Federation of Bosnia-
Herzegovina - 31.98 percent. The party is followed by the HDZ with
16.64 percent of the vote, while the Party for Bosnia-Herzegovina
(SBiH) and the Social Democratic Party (SDP) won slightly less
votes.
The SDS won 37 percent of the vote of the Serb electorate, while the
SNSD won 24.77 percent. The Party of Democratic Progress (PDP) won
11.35 percent of the vote and another three parties won 4-5 percent
of the vote.
The balance of forces in the Federation's parliament will be
similar to that in the state parliament. The SDA has won 32.27 and
the HDZ 16.70 percent of the vote. The parties' votes are not enough
for them to form a government on their own, which they would be able
to do if given so-called compensation mandates or the votes of those
parties which have not passed the election threshold. The SBiH and
the SDP will have 16 and 15.3 percent of seats respectively in the
federal parliament.
The SDS has won 33.7 percent of seats in the Serb entity parliament,
the SNSD has won 24.2 percent and the PDP 11.89 percent of the vote.
An interesting fact is that there will be no Bosniak, Croat or
multiethnic parties in the Bosnian Serb parliament, which so far
had represented an important opposition bloc. Despite that, the new
Serb government would have to be multiethnic because this is
regulated by constitutional amendments adopted in the spring this
year. The SDA and the HDZ won most votes as individual parties in all
Federation cantons with the Bosniak and Croat majority.
The HDZ also won the elections for the municipal council of Zepce,
with 50 percent of the vote.
The official and final results of the Bosnian vote should be
announced between 20 and 22 October.
(hina) rml