SARAJEVO, 13 Sept (Hina, by correspondent Ranko Mavrak) - After six years, some 2,900 000 citizens of Bosnia-Herzegovina with the right to vote will take part in the 14 September elections and vote for one of 24 political parties
which registered for the elections.
SARAJEVO, 13 Sept (Hina, by correspondent Ranko Mavrak) - After six
years, some 2,900 000 citizens of Bosnia-Herzegovina with the right
to vote will take part in the 14 September elections and vote for
one of 24 political parties which registered for the elections. #L#
The voters are to chose their candidates among 3,398
registered names. The voting procedure will take place at 4,625
polling stations and be supervised by more than 1,200 international
monitors and members of non-government organizations and political
parties competing for power. One of those monitors will be Richard
Holbrooke, 'the architect of the Dayton agreement' and John
Kornblum, aide to the U.S. Secretary of State.
The voters will elect three members of the Bosnian Presidency,
the structure of which reflects the ethnic composition of the
country.
The Croat and Muslim representatives to the Bosnian Presidency
will be elected by simple majority by the voters from the territory
of the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, while the Serb
representative will be elected by the voters of Republika Srpska.
The candidate who gets the largest number of votes will be the
first nominal president of the post-Dayton Bosnia-Herzegovina.
On 14 September, the voters should also voice their opinion on
who is going to sit in the Assembly of Bosnia-Herzegovina's House
of Representatives. This body will consist of 42 candidates. Two
thirds of those representatives will be from the Croat-Muslim
Federation and one third will be from the Serb entity. The second
part of the state parliament - the House of Peoples - will have 15
members - five Croats, Bosniacs and Serbs each. The House of
Peoples will be organized indirectly, on the basis of decisions
made by the House of Peoples of the Croat-Bosniac Federation and
the Republika Srpska People's Assembly.
Bosnian citizens living on the Federation territory will also
have to elect 140 members of the Federation House of
Representatives and determine the composition of ten canton
assemblies.
Republika Srpska voters will elect by secret ballot the
president and vice-president of their entity and representatives to
the Republika Srpska People's Assembly.
The first election results could be publicized on 16
September, said Jeff Fisher, who is in charge of elections with the
mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe
(OSCE). The results would be those on the Presidency and possibly
on the House of Representatives of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
It is supposed that the results of elections to the Federation
House of Representatives and Republika Srpska President and Vice
President would be publicized on September 18.
Election results for the Federation canton assemblies and the
Republika Srpska People's Assembly will be publicized a day later.
After the Provisional Election Commission holds a session and
international monitors submit their estimations, OSCE president
Flavio Cotti will publicize the final election results, probably on
25 September.
The international peace coordinator in Bosnia, Carl Bildt, on
Friday announced the first meeting of the new presidency which
could be expected four days after election results are publicized.
The House of Representatives will be called within six days
following the Presidency session.
It is expected that the three members of the Presidency of
Bosnia-Herzegovina will meet for the first time in New York where
Bildt is to accompany them to a session of the U.N. General
Assembly. However, it is still unclear under which flag the three
Presidency members will gather.
Despite the fact that the situation on the ground is unstable,
major incidents during the elections are not expected. More than
60,000 heavily armed IFOR soldiers will carefully watch all crisis
points on the election day. Local authorities are keen on making
the elections a success, all having their own reasons for that,
while the leading parties count on keeping their present positions.
The opposition hopes to gain a more influential position in power-
sharing.
It seems that only ordinary people are not pinning too great
hopes on these elections. They are looking for comfort in the fact
that the international community will not abandon them or withdraw
its soldiers, who will probably have to stay in Bosnia until next
elections, which have already been scheduled for September 1998.
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