Local vote in Bosnia, parties of national communities win

(ANSA) - BELGRADE, OCT 7 - According to preliminary results released by the electoral commission, the major political parties representing the country's three ethnic communities - Muslim Bosniaks, Orthodox Serbs, and Catholic Croats - asserted themselves in the majority of the cities and towns. In the Republika Srpska (RS), the entity with a Serb majority, the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD), led by Bosnian Serb leader and Rs president Milorad Dodik, was the big winner, as expected. Speaking to his supporters, Dodik stated that SNSD candidates for mayor or councillor have established themselves in 45% of Republika Srpska's municipalities, specifically 70 towns. Observers point out, however, that Dodik's party failed to achieve one of its main goals in the race for mayor of Banja Luka, the RS's capital, where Drasko Stanivukovic of the opposition Democratic Progress Party (PDP) was confirmed mayor.
    The main political forces representing the two communities present in Bosnia and Herzegovina's other entity, the Federation of Croat-Muslims (FBiH), have asserted themselves. Dragan Covic, leader of the local Croatian Democratic Union (HDZBiH), affiliated with the similar conservative party in government in Zagreb, stated that his political force has confirmed itself in government in all of the major localities of the FBiH where voting took place yesterday, and that it is also on track for success in Mostar, the capital of Herzegovina, the Balkan country's southern region, a city that is still divided into a Croatian and a Muslim sector. (ANSA).