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Municipal elections in Bosnia reveal growing ethnic divisions

 
Radical nationalist parties from each of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s three major ethnic communities make gains · Poor results for interethnic parties and high abstention rates in urban areas.

Municipal elections held in Bosnia and Herzegovina on Sunday confirmed the clear division of the country into three separate communities. Nationalist parties gained control of councils in their respective areas after a campaign that, according to many analysts, has been characterized more by nationalist rhetoric than by local politics.

Results are still provisional, but the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD), the Serbian party currently in power in the Republika Srpska, has seen 32 of its mayoral candidates elected. The main Bosniak party, the Party of Democratic Action (SDA), has come away with 28 mayors. And the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), one of the parties representing Bosnia's Croat population, now has 15 municipal mayors. The results for 25 municipal councils have not yet been published, and the rest of the 149 mayoral offices were won by independent candidates or by candidates from smaller parties.

The results reflect the fragile equilibrium in the Balkan country, which is made up of two decentralized entities, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republika Srpska, along with a third self-governing administrative unit, the Brčko District, which officially belongs to both of the two main political entities. Three ethnic groups dominate in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosniaks, Serbs, and Croats. Administrative divisions do not coincide with the distribution of the ethnic population.

"If this trend continues, the 2010 parliamentary elections will be an ethnic census of the population," said Professor Asim Mujkic, according to RFE/RL.

Provisional figures suggest abstention rates for the municipal elections were high at approximately 55%. Abstention reached particularly high levels in urban areas, where less than 40% of the electorate took part in the vote. It is thought that this may have been a reaction to the aggressive rhetoric of the nationalist parties.

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