OSCE FAILS TO RELEASE PRELIMINARY RESULTS FOR BOSNIAN ELECTIONS

( Editorial: --> 0655 ) SARAJEVO, Sept 15 (Hina) - The organisers of last weekend's general elections in Bosnia announced that they would not release preliminary results on Tuesday afternoon as planned, in order not to contribute to tensions and discussions which had been instigated by political parties. The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) had earlier announced that preliminary results for the September 12 and 13 poll would be released at 5pm Tuesday. However, OSCE mission to BH head Robert Barry told reporters in Sarajevo that it had received the results of voting in about 800 polling stations, but they represented a small portion of the voters. The counting of votes arriving by post or by those on unconfirmed ballot papers had practically just started, he said. At the moment there are still no correct indicators of voting trends and there is no reason for anyone to declare they have won, the American diplomat said. Deputy OSCE mission head for implementation of the elections, Linda Edgeworth, said the counting of ballot papers from polling stations in the country could continue up to Friday, while the counting and checking of unconfirmed ballot papers as well as those from abroad would still need more time. Ambassador Barry said the final results could be announced more or less according to the earlier announced deadline of about 10 days. According to earlier estimates, between 76 and 78 per cent of voters turned out for the Bosnian elections, Barry said. The turnout was less in the Bosnian Serb republic, where 74 per cent of eligible voters took part in the elections. In three cantons in the Muslim-Croat Federation the turnout was 79 per cent, while in the remaining seven cantons it was 82 per cent. (Hina) mbr 152151 MET sep 98