Military

DATE=11-11-2000

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

NUMBER=2-269117

TITLE=Bosnia Vote (L) Update

BYLINE=Larry James

DATELINE=Sarajevo

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Preliminary indications show a good turnout in Bosnia's general election that was held Saturday. More than 50 percent of eligible voters cast their ballots for new national and regional parliaments. Larry James reports from Sarajevo on the vote which the international community hopes will encourage national reconciliation.

TEXT: There were no reports of any major problems at the three-thousand-500 polling stations throughout the country although elections officials said a few minor glitches did delay poll openings in a few locations. The turnout was highest in the Republika Srpska where voters also cast their ballots for a president as well as a regional and national parliament. The lowest turnout was in Croat areas where a referendum on Croat rights is thought to have created some voter confusion and limited the number casting ballots in the general election.

The referendum has been termed illegal by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe which is conducting the vote. The OSCE warned the referendum organizers, the nationalist not to conduct their poll during the general elections and suggested sanctions could be imposed for ignoring their instructions.

Pre-election polls had suggested that the multi-ethnic Social Democratic Party will win the most votes in the national and Muslim-Croat parliaments, ahead of the Muslim-oriented Party of Democratic Action. But Serb and Croat nationalist parties are expected to fare best in areas dominated by their respective ethnic groups, with Serb nationalists expected to win the most votes in the Serb parliament.

The 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement, which ended the Bosnian war, divided Bosnia into two highly autonomous regions, a Serb republic and a Muslim-Croat federation.

A senior official of the OSCE says the election campaign has been the dirtiest and most heated of the three general elections the group has conducted. He says the reasons is because the hard line nationalists realize they are losing their appeal to voters. The international community hopes that is so and this vote will mark a significant shift toward a multi-ethnic society and away from the divisiveness politics of the nationalist Serb, Croat and Muslim parties that have dominated politics here

They say that in a country with two thirds of the population living below the poverty line the issue is not nationalism but the economy.

Preliminary results are expected Monday, but it may be several weeks before the official tally is announced. (Signed)

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