Nationalists lead Bosnian elections

Bosnia faces the prospect of continued political gridlock in its collective presidency, with nationalist candidates from the Muslim Bosniak, Catholic Croat, and Orthodox Serb communities leading in the preliminary results from Sunday's elections.

With nearly 80 percent of the votes counted, Bakir Izetbegovic seemed poised early on Monday to win a second term as the Muslim Bosniak representative in the presidency. Bakir is the son of Alija Izetbegovic, who led Bosnia during its bloody 1992-1995 civil war.

Dragan Covic and Zeljka Cvijanovic were leading in the respective races for the Croat and Serb seats in the presidency. Covic wants to carve out a separate Croat enclave within Bosnia, while Cvijanovic belongs to a party that advocates Serb secession from the Balkan nation.

Approximately 54 percent of Bosnia's 3.3 million eligible voters cast their ballots on Sunday. That's two percent less than the last elections in 2010

'End the standstill'

Only Izetbegovic campaigned for a strong, unified Bosnian state. He has called for the members of the collective presidency to put their differences aside and put the country on course for eventual EU and NATO membership.

"It's high time to end the standstill, and I think that politicians have matured enough to come out of this vicious cycle," Izetbegovic said on Sunday.

"In any future coalition, I want to see parties that will have a program to help take this country out of depression and standstill and put it back on the track of Euro-Atlantic integration," he continued.

Corruption and unemployment

After three years of civil war that killed more than 100,000 people, a US-brokered deal in 1995 divided Bosnia into two autonomous states, a Muslim-Croat federation and a Serb republic. While the arrangement has kept the peace, it has left the country politically paralyzed.

Last February, Bosnians took to the streets to protest against endemic corruption and an unemployment rate of nearly 50 percent. The average monthly wage in Bosnia is 419 euros ($530).

Bosnians also voted on Sunday for the national parliament, the parliaments of the two autonomous states as well as the president of the Serb republic, among a host of other offices. Results from those races are expected later on Monday.

slk/crh (AFP, Reuters)