AMERICAN and European political figures have hailed the weekend elections in Bosnia as a success, despite complaints from the main Serb and Muslim parties of serious irregularities.
Counting continued overnight and the first results of the complex poll are expected later today. Counting for the three person presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina will be completed first, followed by the count for a national assembly, and political
Leaders in the two Bosnian entities, Republika Srpska and the Muslim/Croat Federation.
The three main nationalist parties - the SDS (Serb), the SDA (Muslim) and the HDZ (Croat) - are expected to win landslide victories in their own areas.
The turnout is believed to have been lower than expected, and many Muslims "ethnically cleansed" during Bosnia's war did not return to vote in what are now Serb controlled areas.
The deputy chairman of the Provisional Elections Commission, Sir Kenneth Scott, admitted yesterday that the OSCE estimate of a 60-70 per cent turnout was simply "a guess". OSCE officials, said privately the turnout could be below 60 per cent.
Representatives of the international effort in Bosnia were quick to dismiss such factors as relatively unimportant. The commander in chief of the international military force in Bosnia, Ifor, Admiral Charles Lopez, said he wanted to congratulate the international community for the conduct of the election.
A spokeswoman for the OSCE said: "I have never seen such a commitment from all the international organisations working in such a seamless way to make such, a historic event happen."
Serb officials suspended the election count in their area for much of yesterday, claiming that postal ballots from Muslim refugees who fled the region during the war were invalid due to the absence of certain documentation. The problem was resolved in the afternoon, and last night counting was going on in most counting stations in Republika Srpska.