Bosnian Vote Results Confirm Victory of Nationalists
Bosnian Muslim, Croat and Serb nationalist parties won the country's three-man presidency and dominate in both central and regional parliaments, final results of this month's general elections showed on Monday.
Bakir Izetbegovic of the main Muslim SDA party won his second four-year mandate in the collective presidency, according to the results announced by the central election commission.
The Serb seat will be held by Mladen Ivanic, former Bosnian foreign minister and candidate of a coalition led by the nationalists Serb Democratic Party, while head of the nationalist Croat HDZ, Dragan Covic, will represent ethnic Croats.
Under the complex Bosnian system, on October 11 voters also chose members of the central parliament as well as deputies of the assemblies that oversee the country's two semi-autonomous halves.
The two post-war entities -- the Serbs' Republika Srpska and the Muslim-Croat Federation -- each have their own government and are linked by weak central institutions.
The SDA was the leading force in the 42-seat central parliament, the results showed.
The party won 10 seats, while the nationalist Serb SNSD and Croat HDZ party will have six and four deputies respectively.
The three nationalist parties should try to form a government with the support of other minor groupings, but other coalitions were also possible.
The international community urged the newly-elected deputies to form a government as soon as possible and start with reforms blocked for years due to inter-ethnic political wrangling.
Bosnian Serb nationalist leader Milorad Dodik won his second term as Republika Srpska president, while his SNSD party, which has been ruling the entity since 2006, said it would form the region's government.
Immediately after the first election results were announced, local political analysts warned that the nationalist slide reflected disillusionment with what is seen as the country's corrupt and inefficient political class.
They also estimated that such an outcome would not help Bosnia fix its internal problems or speed up its aspirations to join the European Union.
Bosnia remains on of the poorest countries in Europe, and unemployment here is running at 44 percent.
In February mass protests broke out against the government's failure to fight graft and enact EU-sought reforms.
Bosnia's 1992-1995 war between its Croats, Muslims and Serbs claimed some 100,000 lives.
Source: Agence France Presse
| Copyright © 2012 Naharnet.com. All Rights Reserved. | https://cdn.naharnet.com/stories/en/152874 |