MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS IN BOSNIA POSTPONED

SARAJEVO, Aug 27 (Hina) - Municipal elections in Bosnia will not take place with the general elections scheduled for September 14, head of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Bosnia and president of the Provisional Electoral Commission, Robert Frowick, said on Tuesday. The decision had been made because of the misuse of an electoral regulation which enabled voters to register in any municipality, Frowick said. The Dayton Agreement envisages Bosnian citizens to vote in municipalities where they had lived in 1991 and the possibility of freely choosing the place of voting was reserved as an exception for those who do not have any place to return because their houses have been destroyed and they do not want to live in the other entity. The Dayton agreement clearly stated that municipal elections would take place if it was possible to combine them with elections for higher bodies of authority, Frowick told a news conference in Sarajevo. The results of the elections which would have taken place in Srebrenica, Brcko, Bihac, Bugojno, Mostar and Stolac could hardly have been accepted as valid, Frowick said. The situation in these municipalities could not significantly influence the results of elections for the Bosnian Presidency, the Parliament of the country, entities' assemblies and cantonal assemblies, so these elections would take place, Frowick said. By making this decision, Frowick actually accepted the requests of most of the parties in the Federation which had warned that the situation which resulted from forcefully evicting and exiling citizens in the Serb entity was trying to be legalized through the use of the P-2 ballot which enables the voters to vote in a municipality where they had not been living in 1991. Frowick expressed his belief that the municipal elections could take place in April or May next year. He added that, despite the postponement of the municipal elections, it was possible to organize successful elections on all other levels which would be reasonably democratic. International Peace Coordinator Carl Bildt supported Frowick's decision immediately. Bildt said that the postponement of the municipal elections was necessary due to numerous manipulations noticed during the registry of Bosnian refugees in Yugoslavia. The international community now had to consider how to resolve this situation, Bildt said, announcing that this issue would be brought up at the session of the Standing Committee for the Implementation of the Peace Agreement which is to take place in Brussels on September 5. (hina) lm jn 271721 MET aug 96