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Bosnian voters hope elections will bring change
AFP - Monday, October 4
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Bosnian voters hope elections will bring change
SARAJEVO (AFP) - – Bosnian voters are voting in a general election that many hope will unblock a political deadlock in the ethnically divided country and secure its entry into the European Union.
The election follows a campaign in which the main parties pushed for voters to again choose along ethnic lines.
But in a Sarajevo polling station, voters tired of years of inter-ethnic strife wanted change.
"I voted for changes and for a new party," said 50-year-old businessman Sejo Kahriman who voted for the new multi-ethnic coalition party, Nasa Stranka.
"They (the nationalists) have been in power for years and they haven't given us anything, they have been fooling us for years," he told AFP.
He acknowledged however that change would be difficult if voter turnout were as low as in the previous elections in 2006 when it stood at 55.3 percent.
"People in Bosnia vote mostly out of habit," he added.
Policeman Safet Sabovic said he also voted for change.
"My whole family is going to vote, nobody else is going to change things for us," he said.
"I also belong to an ethnic groups but I refuse to be pigeon-holed. I reject these divisions," the Sarajevo Muslim said.
Almost 15 years after the end of the 1992-1995 inter-ethnic war, Bosnia's Muslims, Croats and Serbs remain strictly entrenched in their own communities. The Dayton peace agreement that ended the war divided the country into two semi-independent entities: Bosnian Serb-dominated Republika Srpska (RS) and the Muslim-Croat Federation.
Each has its own government and they are linked by weak central institutions based in Sarajevo.
Voters will elect the central tripartite presidency, the central parliament and assemblies for the two entities. In the RS they will also vote for a president, while in the Muslim-Croat Federation voters will choose districts parliaments.
The international community that monitors the war-torn country hopes the vote will bring a leadership that will work to overcome the ethnic divisions and push for the strengthening of the weak central institutions, a key condition for Bosnia to enter the EU.
But in the Republika Sprska (RS) voters were less keen on change and dismissed any suggestion that Bosnian Serbs should give up some of their autonomy to the central institutions.
"I voted for (the hardline nationalist alliance of independent social democrats) SNSD because I don't want to live in centralised Bosnia and SNSD is the biggest fighter for the RS," 52-year-old salesman Miro Lazic said.
"I want them to win because then we are safe."
Bosnia has been politically deadlocked since the 2006 polls as Bosnian Serbs oppose any strengthening of the central institutions at the expense of RS autonomy.
Political reforms, in particular a centralisation of government, are required by the international community and are a key condition for the country's further EU rapprochement.
A recent survey showed that 90 percent of all Bosnia's citizens support the country's integration into the EU.
Analysts warn that further stagnation in the reform process could be devastating for one of Europe's least developed countries.
"Some sort of political change is absolutely necessary unless we want to end up living in a social and economic catastrophe," analyst Haris Abaspahic told AFP ahead of the vote.
Bosnia's already fragile economy has hard hit by the global financial crisis. The gross domestic product shrank with 3.2 percent in 2009, while the unemployment rate in July reached 43 percent, according to the Bureau of statistics.
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