CANDIDATE REGISTRATION EXTENDED FOR BOSNIAN ELECTIONS

( Editorial: --> 3923 ) SARAJEVO, June 26 (Hina) - The deadline for handing in candidate lists and registration of election coalitions for the upcoming general elections in Bosnia-Herzegovina has been extended by two days, ending now on June 29 at 5pm, spokeswoman for the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Nichole Szulc announced on Friday in Sarajevo. This decision was made at yesterday's session of the Provisional Election Commission which has also requested that the already approved coalitions inform the OSCE mission of possible changes in their membership by that same date. According to Sculz, after June 29 not one party will be able to pull out of a registered election coalition. The Commission clarified that votes by parties-members of coalitions will not be counted in the election of members to the BH Presidency or for the President and Vice-President of Republika Srpska, as opposed to the election running for parliaments on various levels. "That means that those candidates who individually get the greatest number of votes will become members of the BH Presidency, and the one among them who gets the biggest voter support becomes the first chairperson of the Presidency," said Szulc. The chairperson's position will be rotated every eight months according to the order of the number of votes received at the September elections. Szulc confirmed that the voter registration which ends tomorrow will not be extended and that applies to registration offices in BH, Croatia and Yugoslavia. (hina) as bag 261447 MET jun 98