PREPARATIONS FOR BOSNIAN LOCAL ELECTIONS GO AS PLANNED

SARAJEVO, April 4 (Hina) - Preparations for municipal elections in Bosnia-Herzegovina, scheduled for 8 April, are proceeding according to plan, said a spokeswoman for the OSCE mission in Sarajevo on Tuesday. The centre for counting ballots has to date received about 100,000 ballots sent by Bosnian citizens who are living abroad. Those citizens got applications for the voting a month ago and they should respond by 5 April, said the OSCE (Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe) spokeswoman, Tanya Domi. All ballots are being collected at OSCE offices in Rajlovac near Sarajevo. The Provisional Election Commission is continuing to check candidates put on parties' list. The purpose of the check-ups is to establish whether those who are running in the polls meet criteria defined in the provisional electoral rules and regulations. For this year's election, a rule has been introduced that a candidate must not use somebody else's flat or house and so far 54 persons have been taken from lists as they breached that rule. The checking will go on after the elections and all who have violated electoral rules can be subsequently removed from the post to which they are elected, Domi explained. International supervisors who are to monitor the local polls have been arriving in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Domi said 750 monitors chosen by OSCE 54 member-countries would first come in the Croatian coastal town of Trogir and then be distributed all over Bosnia. On the day of the election on Saturday, over 2,100 polling stations will open. More than 2.5 million eligible voters can elect some of the 3,300 municipal and town councillors. There are 21,000 independent and other candidates proposed by 68 political parties and seven coalitions. The OSCE mission has not determined the date of the announcement of electoral results in view of the fact that the counting of votes will be a complex job which takes some time, Domi added. /hina) ms