TWO-DAY BOSNIAN SERB PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS CONTINUE

( Editorial: --> 3061 ) SARAJEVO, Nov 23 (Hina) - Two-day Bosnian Serb parliamentary elections continued on Sunday when 1,255 polling stations opened at 08.00 am. The vote is expected to last until 04.00 pm Sunday. According to the OSCE mission that is supervising the elections, the vote proceeded with no difficulty on Saturday. Neither serious incidents nor big difficulties were registered during the first day of the elections. The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) did not give any estimation of a voter turnout on Saturday. It only reported that a greater number of voters were in the rural areas than in towns and cities. Sarajevo media correspondents who followed the elections on the ground said that the turnout was relatively light on the first day of the vote. According to them, it was below 50 percent of the eligible voters. An OSCE spokesman in Sarajevo, Luke Zahner, said that they were expecting a heavier turnout on the second day of the elections as they noticed that during the two-day Bosnia local elections in September, the turnout had been considerably bigger on the second day. At these elections, there are 1,455 candidates for the 83-seat Assembly of the Republic of Srpska. Results are likely to be known after 6 December. (hina) mš 231006 MET nov 97