BOSNIA ELECTIONS PROCEEDING WITH NO SERIOUS PROBLEM-FOLEY

SARAJEVO, Sept 13 (Hina) - Most of polling stations in Bosnian Herzegovina opened on time this morning in Bosnian municipal elections and the voting is proceeding with no big problems, a spokesman for the OSCE mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina has said. The spokesman for the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, David Foley, confirmed on Saturday that negotiations had been led on late Friday evening with major Bosnian parties - the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ BiH), the Moslem-led Party of Democratic Action (SDA) and the Serb Democratic Party (SDS) - that threatened to boycott elections until the last moment. The negotiations were completed and the election process commenced, Foley told a news conference in Sarajevo. He said that eight polling stations in Croat-controlled parts of Zepce (central Bosnia) remained closed. He reminded reporters that Zepce had been a problem since the beginning of the registration of eligible voters and voiced regret at such developments. The OSCE spokesman said that the closure of polls was likely to have been a decision of local Croat authorities to boycott the elections, and described this as an undemocratic act. At the conference held shortly before the noon, Foley said that a polling station would open in the central zone of Mostar on Saturday afternoon but he declined to say reasons why the OSCE decided to open the polling station there. The OSCE spokesman said that negotiations on the holding of elections in Mostar had finished and action should be taken now. Short delays in opening polling stations were reported in Travnik and Zenica, central Bosnia, but problems were removed in the morning. Foley confirmed that an explosion had happened in front of the HDZ local offices in the downtown Sarajevo on early Saturday morning, and condemned the incident. The OSCE condemned any attack aimed against political processes and voters' opportunity to cast their ballots. This incident showed that the elections were actually the struggle between democratic and undemocratic forces, he added. Another explosion was reported from Banja Luka where an OSCE car was damaged by shrapnel of a hand grenade. The car was incidentally damaged when a drunken man, who used to be treated at the psychiatric ward of Banja Luka hospital, threw the grenade. No important problems were reported in the movement of voters. Only Serbs who had registered themselves to vote in Drvar, western Bosnia, faced some difficulties. Foley added that these people had problems in the territory of the Serb entity and an investigation would be immediately conducted. According to OSCE figures, 35,000 voters who will pass the interentity boundary during the elections have been registered. (hina) mš 131337 MET sep 97