Peace envoys view the presidential and parliamentary polls as Bosnia’s best chance to move towards Europe and prosperity before international patience, aid and attention dwindle away.
Muslims, Serbs and Croats filed into polling stations in the capital Sarajevo, whose siege by Serb forces epitomised the 1992-1995 war that set neighbour against neighbour and left open wounds among the ethnic groups.
“I only know that we must vote for change as electing those who led us into the war would mean a disaster,” said Ljerka Samardzic, a 60-year-old retired hairdresser from Sarajevo.
The winners of the poll will rule for four years rather than two in previous elections, a key extension intended to help them kick-start the economy and make government work.
By then the international community, which runs much of Bosnia behind the scenes and has injected $5 billion since the guns fell silent, expects Bosnia to stand alone.
These are Bosnia’s first polls run without Western help and will determine if reformists can sustain or improve a delicate balance of power that let them eject the big nationalist parties from power at the state level after the last elections in 2000.
That will be crucial since nationalists, particularly Serbs, have scotched efforts to forge strong common institutions and a single economic space needed to attract trade and investment, and qualify Bosnia for talks to join the wealthy European Union.
But some voters seemed jaded by painful reforms that have not created many jobs or improved the lives of ordinary people.
“I’m not sure if any of the candidates can offer change. I am afraid we are only choosing between the devil and the deep blue sea,” said Rasid Cindra, a laid-off Muslim factory worker.
PEACEFUL PROCESS: No major incidents were reported by the time polls closed.
Preliminary results were due late on Sunday, and meanwhile parties scrambled to prepare their own forecasts overnight to start what analysts and diplomats say may well be months of horse-trading in power and patronage to build ruling coalitions.
Voters chose deputies for the Bosnian state parliament that sits above the parliaments of the country’s post-war Serb and Muslim-Croat halves. They also picked three multi-ethnic state presidency members, a Serb president and assemblies for 10 cantons.
It was a bewildering choice among 57 parties and more than 7,500 candidates. But new equality laws will guarantee truly multi-ethnic governments at all levels.
Charismatic moderate Haris Silajdzic is tipped for the Muslim seat on the state presidency, while nationalists are poised to take the Serb and Croat spots.
“I hope citizens...will elect people who will not rule but serve the citizens,” Silajdzic said.
In the Muslim-Croat federation, the main reformist Social Democrats (SDP) should remain strongest among Muslims, closely followed by Silajdzic’s SBiH party.
“This country is tired of repeating the past. This country needs a future, this country needs hope,” SDP leader Zlatko Lagumdzija said after casting his ballot.
In the Serb Republic, moderate Milorad Dodik hopes to prevent a repeat of the current government of Western-leaning Premier Mladen Ivanic, which relies, in an awkward alliance, on hardline nationalists from the Serb Democratic Party.
Around Prijedor in northwest Bosnia, where thousands of Muslims are believed to have been tortured and killed in detention camps, there were words of conciliation from Serbs.
“We are three peoples, we speak three languages but we understand each other. We must find a common solution,” said Mladen Tadic, a Serb who voted for the SDP.—Reuters