Izetbegovic’s party wins polls in Bosnia

SARAJEVO

The Party of Democratic Action (SDA), founded by late Bosnian leader Alija Izetbegovic, won the local elections in Bosnia-Herzegovina with 34 municipalities out of 136, according to the unofficial results. The SDA won cities such as Novi Grad, Ilica, Zenica, Bihac and Travnik. SDA leader Sulejman Tihic celebrated the victory with Bakir Izetbegovic, head of the Presidential Council, and his supporters in the capital, Sarajevo.

A total of 3.1 million registered citizens voted for 30,000 nominees for local councils and mayors from 84 parties and 59 political coalitions Oct. 7, Anatolia news agency reported.

Nationwide, some 550 candidates, including 40 women, ran for 140 mayoral posts, while more than 30,000 candidates, 35 percent of them women, contested seats on local councils, according to Agence France-Presse. Meanwhile, the Serbian Democratic Party (SDS), once led by Radovan Karadzic, former political leader of Bosnian Serbs tried at the International Court of Justice in The Hague for war crimes, ranked second, winning 27 municipalities. The Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD), led by Milorad Dodik, the president of Republika Srpska, ranked third, winning 15 municipalities. SNSD had previously had 41 municipalities.

Srebrenica vote outcome
The elections have also turned into a battle for the eastern town of Srebrenica, where at the end of the 1992-95 war Bosnian Serb forces killed 8,000 Muslim men and boys and expelled the rest of the Muslim population. New electoral rules have paved the way for the Serbs to win office in Srebrenica.

Local electoral commission said the Serb mayoral candidate Vesna Kocovic was slightly ahead, but insisted that almost one-third of total ballots cast were yet to be counted. However the Muslim candidate, incumbent mayor Camil Durakovic, said he was ahead of Kocovic, insisting that votes remaining to be counted were mostly from Muslims living abroad, securing his victory.