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September 14 Elections Move A Step Closer to Reality
By Steve Pagani
VIENNA, June 20 (Reuters) - A decision to set Bosnia's first post-war elections for September 14 moved a step closer on Thursday as envoys to a European security forum backed a timetable for the polls outlined in the Dayton peace accord. Some 54 ambassadors or envoys from member nations of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) unanimously supported the recommended date for Bosnia's nationwide polls, despite misgivings over whether full democratic conditions would be in place in time.
"There was unanimity in the will to respect the calendar of Dayton, that is 14th of September," Ambassador Benedikt von Tscharner, the chairman of the OSCE's permanent council, told a news conference.
"It is important to maintain the momentum of the peace process," he added. The Dayton agreement was signed in Paris last December, ending 43 months of war in Bosnia.
Von Tscharner said the permanent council was aware that problems relating to freedom of movement, freedom of association and access to the media still existed in Bosnia but warned any delay in holding the polls "could jeopardise the peace process."
The Vienna-based council "called for a deliberate effort to overcome the still remaining problems," he said.
The OSCE is charged with organising the polls and the head of the OSCE election mission in Bosnia, U.S. envoy Robert Frowick, recommended last week that the body stick to the timetable set out in the Dayton pact.
A final decision has to be taken by the OSCE chairman-in-office, Swiss Foreign Minister Flavio Cotti, who told the news conference he would issue a statement on the election date in Vienna next Tuesday. He said he would visit Sarajevo and Banja Luka before returning to Vienna for final consultations with the OSCE permanent council before making his decision.
Cotti said he would also take into consideration the endorsement of the September 14 election date by a conference involving ministers from more than 40 countries held in Florence last week. The Florence meeting agreed that the continued presence in Bosnia of alleged war criminals indicted by the U.N. tribunal in The Hague was a hindrance to the election process.
But the ministers did not insist that Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic be extradited before the election takes place. Instead, the closing conference statement merely said Karadzic "should remove himself from the political scene."
A local board of the Serb Democratic Party nominated Karadzic on Thursday as their candidate for president of the Bosnian Serb entity Republika Srpska, the Bosnian Serb news agency SRNA reported. Cotti said if Karadzic's name appeared on a ballot paper in any of the scheduled elections, the vote would be illegal.
"The Dayton agreement does not allow people indicted by the Hague tribunal to be elected," he said.
The planned elections include voting for a Bosnia-wide parliament, assemblies for the Muslim-Croat federation and Republika Srpska, as well as municipal and cantonal polls.
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Berserkistan, June 14 · Some 60 Political Parties Register for September Vote
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