SARAJEVO: Bosnians voted on Sunday in local elections likely to keep in power nationalist parties reflecting ethnic rivalries, 13 years after war ended.

More than 3 million registered voters were entitled to cast their ballots for city councils and mayors in the two autonomous regions created under the Dayton peace accords that ended the 1992-95 war, as well as in the neutral Brcko district. “The winners are those who succeed in convincing voters they will best protect the interests of their ethnic group, attacking other groups,” said Sanel Huskic of the Sarajevo-based ACIPS think tank.

Huskic said few of the more than 29,000 candidates had talked about the concrete problems of local communities or the future of the country. “They all declare support for integration in the European Union but absolutely nobody talks about how to accomplish it,” Huskic said. “The reaction will be a low turnout of voters, a trend that we have already seen.”

Most people interviewed in Sarajevo on a cold autumn morning said they did not expect much from the vote.—Reuters