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Bosnia’s Political Parties Register for 90-Day Campaign
Some 60 political parties register
SARAJEVO, June 14 (Reuters) - Bosnian Serb, Muslim and Croat political parties handed in their applications on Friday for country-wide elections, with ruling nationalists in a commanding position three months before the vote is scheduled. Roughly 60 political parties in Bosnia registered to compete in the mid-September ballot before the 1500 GMT deadline expired, officials from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said.
The OSCE is charged with organising the complex elections despite fears that nationalist authorities could ruin attempts at creating conditions for a democratic ballot. The main contenders remain the same nationalist parties which prevailed in elections in 1990 -- the Serb Democratic Party (SDS), the Muslim Party of Democratic Action (SDA) and the Croat Democratic Union (HDZ).
Some opposition parties from the Muslim-Croat federation and Bosnian Serb territory have joined forces and will run in coalition. The main rival to Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic's SDA is the Party for Bosnia led by Haris Silajdzic, former Bosnian prime minister. Silajdzic has accused all the ruling parties of pushing for the partition of Bosnia into "ethnic ghettoes."
Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic's SDS is challenged by the Bosnian Serb Socialist Party sponsored by Serbia's President Slobodan Milosevic, while HDZ has no real rivals. Diplomats and analysts believe ruling Serb, Muslim and Croat nationalists will easily win the elections, mainly due to their tight control over police and media. Pre-election conditions are far from free or fair, with authorities restricting opposition access to the media, blocking free movement of civilians and abusing human rights. The West and the Bosnian government say the main obstacle to a free election is Karadzic, an indicted war criminal, who remains in office as Serb political chief in violation of the Dayton peace agreement.
His clinging to power in turn prompts nationalists from other rival ethnic groups to stick to their hardline positions after the bitter 43-month war which ended last November. In Florence on Friday, the United States and its allies were pushing at a peace summit for setting elections as scheduled on September 14, despite abuses by nationalist authorities. Major powers have insisted that indicted war criminals be held to account but have not made their extradition an explicit condition for proceeding with the vote.
Western powers argue it is better to hold faulty elections than none at all, saying any delay would help hardliners prevent the forming of joint governing bodies. The Dayton accord preserves Bosnia, a former Yugoslav republic, as a single state in a loose union comprised of Muslim-Croat and Serb entities. |
Berserkistan, June 11 · Bosnia’s SDA Charged with Moving Refugees to Sway Vote
Berserkistan, June 8 · Special Report: In Bosnia, Skepticism over Fair Elections
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