OSCE praises Bosnia elections

OSCE workers counting the votes

By Alix Kroeger in Sarajevo

The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), which is overseeing Bosnia's elections, says it is extremely pleased with the way voting was carried out.

The parliamentary assembly of the OSCE sent fifty monitors to visit more than 300 polling stations around the country.

Preliminary results indicate the multi-ethnic Social Democrats have done well in the Muslim Croat Federation, while in Bosnian Serb areas the hardline nationalist SDS appears to be in the lead.

These are the third Bosnia-wide parliamentary elections since the Balkan war.

In other European countries, elections which passed off without incident might be taken for granted; in post-war Bosnia it is highly unusual.

The OSCE delegation said its unanimous conclusion was that polling day organisation was of the highest order.

However it raised concerns about the conduct of the election campaign itself.

These included speeches by political parties inciting hatred, attempts at organised fraud and efforts to undermine the Dayton peace accord which ended the Bosnian war five years ago.

The OSCE described as unacceptable a referendum organised by the Croat nationalist party, the HDZ, and the party could face penalties as a result.

The OSCE urged the newly elected state-level parliament to enact a permanent election law, something the previous parliament debated and then rejected.

Long way from normality

An increasing number of laws in Bosnia are being imposed by the international community's top envoy there, the High Representative Wolfgang Petrisch.

Less than 24-hours after the polls had closed, Mr Petrisch announced he was imposing five new laws, including the creation of a state court and reforms to the pension laws.

The pension changes have been demanded by the World Bank as a condition for releasing further loans. When parliament rejected the changes, the High Representative stepped in.

Despite the peaceful conduct of the elections, Bosnia is still a long way from normality.

The question must be how far the international community is prepared to act undemocratically in order to impose democracy.