CLOSED POLLING STATIONS RESULT OF TECHNICAL NOT POLITICAL PROBLEM

( Editorial: --> 9958 ) MOSTAR, Sept 12 (Hina) - Polling stations which were not opened this morning are the result of a technical, not political problem, the head of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe office in Mostar, David Foley, said on Saturday. Thirty-two polling stations out of 301 his office is in charge of during this weekend's general election in Bosnia remained closed due to incomplete voters' lists and difficulties with computers, he told reporters in the southern Bosnian town. The Mostar-based OSCE office is in charge of Herzegovina-Neretva Canton, Western Herzegovina Canton, and the south-east of the Bosnian Serb entity. Commenting on a statement made earlier by Herzegovina-Neretva Canton Prefect Zeljko Obradovic, who said that not one polling station was opened in Neum and Capljina, Foley said that two of four polling stations in Neum, and several in Capljina, had been opened. There have been problems with incomplete voters' lists throughout Bosnia, not just in areas with a Croat majority population, he told reporters. In Stolac, a crowd of dissatisfied protested due to the fact that not one normal polling station had been opened in the town, except one for voting in absentia, Foley said. He pointed out the dissatisfied crowd included drunken people who were making noise. Foley called on local officials to restore order. (hina) ha 121544 MET sep 98