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Sunday December 9, 3:03 PMVoting starts in Bosnian Serb presidential elections
Polling stations opened at 7:00 am (0600 GMT) and were to close 12 hours later. The first preliminary results are expected to be announced at midnight (2300 GMT). Some 1.1 million voters are to choose between 10 candidates for president of Republika Srpska, which along with the Muslim-Croat federation has made up Bosnia since the 1992-95 war, only five days after the country took its first step towards joining the EU. Sarajevo on Tuesday initialled a so-called Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with the European Union. Rajko Kuzmanovic, of the ruling Union of Independent Social-Democrats (SNSD), is seen as the most likely candidate to replace Jelic, who died of a heart attack on September 30, less than a year after being elected. The preservation of the Republika Srpska's institutions, despite willigness to join the EU, dominated the electoral campaign. Serbs are strongly opposed to the strengthening of central institutions at the expense of their entity's powers, as is often required by the international community as necessary for the country's European integration. The RS is a semi-independent entity with its own president, government, parliament and police force. The two entities are linked by weak central institutions. |
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