OFFICIAL RESULTS OF B-H ELECTIONS EXPECTED ON WEDNESDAY

( Editorial: --> 2204 ) SARAJEVO, Sept 22 (Hina) - The results of the Bosnian general election, held ten days ago, will most probably be announced on Wednesday, September 23, Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Mission representative said on Tuesday. However, the results will not be final, OSCE spokeswoman Nicole Szulc told reporters. The ballot-counting headquarters in the Sarajevo suburb of Lukavica is still checking and counting unconfirmed ballots, of which there are 172,000. The ballots in question were filled in by B-H citizens who were not on the election rolls sent to the polling stations, and the OSCE is now checking whether they had the right to vote. The number of seats in the state parliament will be determined within the procedure of final confirmation of election results, for which the Provisional Election Commission, chaired by OSCE Mission head Robert Barry, is exclusively authorised. However, the Sarajevo media has already been publishing election results for the Croat-Muslim Federation. Two Sarajevo dailies, "Oslobodjenje" and "Dnevni avaz", have published almost identical data, without revealing their source. According to the data presented, the Coalition for an Integral and Democratic Bosnia-Herzegovina, led by the Muslim Party of Democratic Action (SDA), has won 51.5 per cent of votes in the elections for the Federation House of Representatives. The Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia-Herzegovina (HDZ BiH) has won 19.3% while the Social-Democratic Party (SDP) has won little below 14% of votes. Following the three leading parties are another social-democratic party, led by Selim Beslagic (3.2%), and the New Croat Initiative (3.11%). As regards the situation in the Bosnian Serb entity, the data shows that, individually, the Serb Democratic Party (SDS) should keep the lead in the National Assembly with 24% of votes. The SDS is followed by Biljana Plavsic's Serb People's Alliance and Nikola Poplasen's Radical Party (14% of votes each), Zivko Radisic's Socialist Party (about 11%) and Social-Democratic Party, led by Milorad Dodik (7.7%). The Coalition for an Integral and Democratic Bosnia-Herzegovina and SDP will also have seats in the Serb parliament, but it is uncertain whether any Croat representative will sit there in the next two years. According to "Dnevni avaz", Alija Izetbegovic has come out with a convincing victory in the elections for the Muslim member of the joint state presidency by winning almost 457,000 votes (54.6%). The Croat candidate Ante Jelavic won 164,229 votes, according to the paper. If this data proves to be correct, this will mean that the new Muslim and Croat presidency members have been elected with considerably less votes than in 1996. In 1996, 730,592 people voted for Alija Izetbegovic while the then Croat member of the Presidency, Kresimir Zubak, won 330,477 votes. (hina) jn rml/sp 221523 MET sep 98