OSCE ANNOUNCES FINAL RESULTS OF BOSNIAN GENERAL ELECTIONS

( Editorial: --> 5065 ) SARAJEVO, Oct 2 (Hina) - The Provisional Election Commission (PEC) in Bosnia-Herzegovina on Friday confirmed the results of the September 12 and 13 general elections and announced the final layout of seats in the state and entity parliaments. The PEC is part of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation (OSCE) Mission to Bosnia. Regarding the composition of the House of Representatives of the Bosnia-Herzegovina Parliament, the Coalition for an Integral and Democratic Bosnia-Herzegovina (CD Coalition) will have 17 representatives, the Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia- Herzegovina (HDZ BiH) six, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) four, and the Social Democratic Party of Selim Beslagic two MPs. The Democratic People's Union (DNZ) and the New Croat Initiative (NHI) gained one seat each. Of the parties from the Bosnian Serb entity, Republika Srpska, the Serb Democratic Party (SDS) and the "Sloga" (Unity) coalition won four seats each. The Radicals led by Nikola Poplasen will have two MPs and the Radical Party will have one MP in the state parliament. The CD Coalition has also won the most seats in the BH Federation Parliament - 68. It is followed by the HDZ BiH, which will have 28 MPs and the SDP, which has won 19 seats. The NHI-HKDU (Croatian Christian Democratic Union) coalition will have four representatives as will Beslagic's Social Democrats. The DNZ led by Fikret Abdic will have three seats in the Federation Parliament. The Croatian Party of Rights (HSP) has again made it to the federal parliament with two representatives. The BH Patriotic Party (BPS) led by Sefer Halilovic will for the first time be represented in the federal parliament with two MPs. The same number of mandates was won by the Republika Srpska Socialist Party and the Democratic Party of Pensioners. The Bosniak Party of Rights (BPS), the Coalition of the Centre (led by Stjepan Kljujic and Muhamed Filipovic), the Croatian Peasants' Party of Bosnia-Herzegovina (HSS BiH) and the Bosnian Party (BOSS) will have one seat each. The election results for the Republika Srpska Assembly also show considerable dispersion of the electorate. The SDS has remained the strongest party however with only 19 out of 83 seats. It is followed by the CD Coalition with 15 mandates, the Serb People's Union (led by Biljana Plavsic) with 12 mandates, Poplasen's Radicals with 11 and Zivko Radisic's Socialists with 10 mandates. The Social Democrats led by Milorad Dodik will have six seats, the Radical Party three, the "Serb Coalition" two and the SDP BiH two. For the first time two Croat parties - HDZ BiH and NHI - have entered the Bosnian Serb parliament with one representative each. "The Coalition for the King and Homeland" has also won one seat. OSCE Mission head Robert Barry assessed today that the elections were successful in all aspects because they resulted in the obvious strengthening of forces supporting the Dayton peace agreement, and showed that those wishing to block that process are gradually losing the voters' confidence. The BH Constitution clearly states that the state parliament should be constituted within a 30-day period from the technical confirmation of results. The same period for entity parliaments lasts 20 days and for canton assemblies 10 days. There are still no precise deadlines for the constitution of the new state presidency and the transfer of authority will be performed in line with a decision by High Representative Carlos Westendorp. According to the final election results for the BH Presidency, the Muslim member Alija Izetbegovic won 511,541 votes, the new Croat member Ante Jelavic won 189,438 while the new Serb member Zivko Radisic gained the confidence of 359,937 voters. Nikola Poplasen beat Biljana Plavsic in the race for the position of Republika Srpska President by winning 322,684 votes. Plavsic gained 286,606 votes. In the next couple of days the OSCE Mission will announce the names of candidates who have been elected MPs. Those candidates include six men who are MPs in the Croatian National Parliament. They will have to decide whether to remain in the Croatian National Parliament or take over their seats in some of the Bosnian parliaments, Barry said. (hina) jn rml /mbr 022009 MET oct 98