SARAJEVO, Sept 27 (Hina) - The head of the OSCE mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina on Wednesday marked the official start of pre-election campaign which will last coming 45 days. General elections are set for 11 November when Bosnians are
expected to elect the Bosnian Serb entity's President and Vice President, the state and both entities' parliaments as well as assemblies in the Croat-Moslem Federation's cantons. The new composition of Bosnia's three-man Presidency will be elected in two years. Our message to voters in Bosnia-Herzegovina is simple. The ballot can and really bring changes. If voters want changes, they should go to polls, Barry told a news conference in Sarajevo. In this context he said the developments in Croatia at the beginning of this year showed that citizens could change the state of affairs by voting, and similar signals are coming in the wake of the election in Yugoslavia. The head of
SARAJEVO, Sept 27 (Hina) - The head of the OSCE mission in Bosnia-
Herzegovina on Wednesday marked the official start of pre-election
campaign which will last coming 45 days.
General elections are set for 11 November when Bosnians are
expected to elect the Bosnian Serb entity's President and Vice
President, the state and both entities' parliaments as well as
assemblies in the Croat-Moslem Federation's cantons.
The new composition of Bosnia's three-man Presidency will be
elected in two years.
Our message to voters in Bosnia-Herzegovina is simple. The ballot
can and really bring changes. If voters want changes, they should go
to polls, Barry told a news conference in Sarajevo.
In this context he said the developments in Croatia at the beginning
of this year showed that citizens could change the state of affairs
by voting, and similar signals are coming in the wake of the
election in Yugoslavia.
The head of the OSCE (Organisation for Security and Cooperation in
Europe) mission said that this time improved election rules and
regulations were available to voters which could more directly
influence the situation in Bosnia.
Over 2.5 million voters can go to polls on 11 November. Of them, some
230,000 live abroad the country - from Argentina to China.
About 6,000 candidates from 44 parties and one coalition will stand
the elections for 583 seats in parliaments.
The costs of the ballot are estimated to be some 20 million German
marks. The means have been ensured by OSCE member countries, but
Barry warned that this had been done with much difficulty.
There was not much enthusiasm for the allocation of means from other
countries for this purpose, the US diplomat said adding that it was
high time that Bosnia took over the duty of organising elections on
its own.
An important pre-condition is a permanent election law which has
not yet been passed as parties in Bosnia cannot yet agree on its
provisions.
The adoption of the permanent election law is a pre-condition for
Bosnia's accession into the Council of Europe.
(hina) jn ms