Reconciliation hope as Bosnia votes

Bosnians started voting in municipal elections yesterday with the West hoping they will reject wartime nationalist parties and opt for ethnic reconciliation following the 1992-1995 conflict.

Around 2.5 million Bosnians were eligible to vote, electing councils in 145 municipalities. Preliminary results are expected tomorrow. Western officials said they expect a good turnout, despite cold weather and the risk of voter fatigue after a series of general and municipal elections since the conflict.

"The turnout is always high here," said Tanya Domi of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), which is supervising the vote. She estimated it would reach up to 85%.

Surveys suggest relatively moderate politicians will show gains in some areas, including the capital Sarajevo, as a result of frustration over the poor state of the economy.

But diplomats and analysts said it is probably too soon after Europe's worst conflict since 1945 to expect a radical break with the past. Over 200,000 people died in the 43-month war between Bosnian Serb, Croat and Muslim forces. It was ended by the US-brokered Dayton accord which divided Bosnia into two autonomous entities - the Serb Republic and the Muslim-Croat federation.

With many Serbs, Croats and Muslims likely to continue voting along ethnic lines rather than on economic issues, hardline parties look set to remain influential in post-war Bosnia, despite poverty and a jobless rate of up to 40%.

Western officials say local obtrusiveness is still hampering efforts to speed up refugee returns and introduce free market reforms to reduce dependence on massive foreign aid.

But Domi said people now seemed more focused on local issues, such as education and employment, and less on ethnicity. "People want jobs, they are desperate we're beginning to see a shift," she said.

Yesterday's vote was the second municipal election since the war. General elections were held in 1996 and 1998. An extraordinary parliamentary election took place two and a half years ago in the Serb republic. The votes failed to weaken significantly the position of ethnically based parties, although a Western-backed coalition government is now in power in Bosnia's Serb half.

The Serb Democratic Party (SDS) founded a decade ago by wartime Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic - now an indicted war criminal in hiding - is expected to remain the single biggest party, although in opposition in parliament in the Serb republic. SDS leaders insist the party has changed and that Karadzic no longer has any influence on it.

In Croat areas in the south, the local branch of the nationalist Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) is expected to retain power, despite its heavy defeat in Croatia. But the opposition Social Democratic Party (SDP), favoured by the West, is forecast to do well in Sarajevo and elsewhere at the expense of the ruling Muslim Party of Democratic Action.

Copyright 2000
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.