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Bosnians Vote With Unity on the Line October 5, 2002 By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Filed at 8:19 a.m. ET SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) -- Whatever their political beliefs, most Bosnians hope Saturday's elections will open an escape hatch from their country's postwar political deadlock and economic stagnation. ``All I want is a regular pension and someone to lead us out of this misery,'' said Halida Dzeko, a retiree who waited as a Sarajevo polling station opened. But she left disappointed -- she could not vote because officials said her name was not on voting lists. The elections will decide the country's three-member presidency representing each of Bosnia's rival ethnic groups: Serbs, Muslims and Croats. Voters also will elect a joint state parliament, a Bosnian Serb parliament, a Muslim-Croat parliament and officials to head the 10 cantons into which Bosnia's Muslim-Croat federation is divided. Political parties here largely are divided into two camps: those who want to split the country along ethnic lines and those who want to unify it by washing away ethnic divisions. Both camps, hoping for economic prosperity, say they want to bring Bosnia closer to Western Europe. However, Western diplomats say they will not cooperate with an ethnically divided country led by extreme nationalists representing the same beliefs that sparked Europe's bloodiest conflict since World War II. Nationalists representing the three ethnic groups have ruled the country for much of the decade since independence but were pushed into opposition on the national level in the most recent elections two years ago. But analysts say the lack of subsequent improvement in Bosnians' everyday life strengthens them now. Croat and Serb nationalists want to divide Bosnia along ethnic lines, while Muslim nationalists promote Muslim interests in a unified country. Bosnians have voted in five elections since the end of the 1992-1995 war that killed more than 260,000 people. Saturday's poll is the first election administered by local authorities instead of foreign diplomats supervising Bosnia's postwar development. Those elected in the past have failed to improve the economy. The average monthly salary is $250 and unemployment reaches 60 percent in the most impoverished regions, leaving many Bosnians disillusioned. In the days before the election, analysts predicted that many Bosnians would skip voting because they do not believe politicians can do anything for them. But as campaigns intensified and international officials -- including U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell -- repeatedly urged people to vote, the mood apparently shifted. ``I will vote. Like everybody else, first I thought not to, but I changed my mind in the last moment because I don't want someone else to decide for me,'' said Mirza Sefic, a 30-year-old Muslim construction worker from the southern town of Mostar. Unlike previous elections, no peacekeeping troops guarded the polling stations, where balloting proceeded calmly early Saturday. Some voters, like retiree Dzeko, complained they were not on lists even though they had registered to vote. Vedran Maric, a 23-year-old Bosnian Croat student from Mostar, said the campaigns persuaded him to participate, even though, ``I still don't know for whom I will vote.'' In Saturday's poll, lawmakers' terms have been extended to four years from two. Bosnia consists of two mini-states: the Serb republic and the Muslim-Croat federation. Each has wide individual powers but is linked by a joint parliament and government. There also is a three-member presidency with one representative for each ethnic group. The leader, however, is an international official with the power to impose laws and fire politicians. So far, he has been forced to impose measures aimed at national unity because local politicians keen on pushing their own ethnic interests have failed to agree on issues ranging from border controls to the design of the national flag. In the Muslim-Croat federation, the moderate, multiethnic Social Democratic Party and its ruling coalition partner, the Muslim-dominated moderate Party for Bosnia-Herzegovina, face tough competition from the centrist, Muslim Party for Democratic Action and the nationalist Croat Democratic Union. In the Serb republic, voters will choose candidates from several nationalistic parties, led by the hardline national Serb Democratic Union -- founded by Radovan Karadzic, the wartime Bosnian Serb president. He and Ratko Mladic, his top general, are the U.N.'s two most-wanted war crimes suspects. Slobodan Novakovic, 67, would not reveal his choice among the 57 parties and 35 presidential candidates as he voted early Saturday. ``We have to put this country in order. We need the reforms,'' he said. ``I know they are painful, but you can't go backward -- that would be even more painful.'' http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Bosnia-Elections.html?ex=1034826339&ei=1&en=bc26254a48d043be HOW TO ADVERTISE --------------------------------- For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters or other creative advertising opportunities with The New York Times on the Web, please contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] or visit our online media kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo For general information about NYTimes.com, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. 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