14 September 97, 19:30
The whole central news was devoted to reports on the local elections.
Media Centre OSCE – The local elections in BiH have finished. According to unofficial OSCE information, 89 per cent of the 2,5 million registered voters cast votes in the communities where they lived before 1991. There is still no information on the total number of voters who cast ballots, but it was said that the voters response was large, what David Foley, OSCE Spokesman called a good answer of the BiH peoples to the nationalists and undemocratic powers, which wished to block the elections. All polling stations were open today including four in Zepce and two in Usora in which there was no voting yesterday. The Croatian personnel, who attempted to disturb the election, were removed from the polling station in Zepce.
The main problems appeared to be with the voting of Serbs in Drvar, so OSCE organised a voting station for them outside the town. The counting of the votes will take place in Rajlovac, under continuos control of the OSCE supervisors.
3’30”
BiH TV and OSCE co-operated very successfully these days, said one of the editors. The OSCE Press Centre forwarded the latest election information to the BiH TV and BiH TV was continuously open for the OSCE live reporting from the voting cites. The OSCE even harmonised the beginning of its Press Conferences with the BiHTV program.
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The last news from Media Center – Media silence will be remain in force until all polling stations have closed. PEC decided this because of the large number of voters who are still waiting to cast their vote.
A person was killed at the polling station in Odzak but OSCE Spokesman presumes that this was not in direct connection with the election. It was a matter of clashes among criminals, David Foley said. He could not give any details either of who was killed or who did it.
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Special correspondents election reports from the other towns: Mostar – Early in the morning two Joint force policemen were beaten up in west Mostar by drunks. The Croatian policeman defending his Bosniak colleague in an verbal attack received injuries and is still in the hospital.
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Tuzla – Both voting days passed without any incident. Very good voters response, footage of the voters. Some transportation problems.
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Bihac – Decisiveness to succeed in the implementing of the sovereign and democratic BiH. Very good organisation for the Serbs who voted here.
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Zenica – Zepce – The representatives of the IC – Ambassador Ellerkman and General Grange visited Zepca. Tesanj – Voter’s response very bad. Brcko – According to the estimations, in the Federal part of Brcko, 96 % of voters have cast a ballot.
Banja Luka – Despite all that happened, the peoples voice will be heard, Johan Verhayden, OSCE Spokesman told news here. Drvar – The problem in Drvar represents a black point on the BiH election map. By closing a polling station where the Serb DPs should have voted, local staff tried to block the election process. OSCE opened another polling station at which only the internationals were allowed to work.
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Sarajevo – I judge as perfect the two day election, Hilmo Pasic, said and his colleague Mirko Boskovic both Federal PEC Members, gave more details on the election preparations. The official election results will be known in seven days. 2’00”
Robert Gelbard, Special US Envoy accompanied with Richard Kauzlarich, American Ambassador to BiH, visited Mostar today. Gelbard was especially interested to see the voting in the central city zone where the polling station was opened after the Cantonal Constitution amendments were accepted.
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Robert Gelbard also visited Vogosca today. In his later talks with Midhat Haracic, Sarajevo Governor, he said that after the local elections, privatisation is the priority of the American diplomacy in BiH, since the BiH State and Federal bodies do not pay enough attention to this process.
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HR Carlos Westendorp visited polling stations in Vogosca, Novi Grad and Dobrinja IV on the Serb entity territory. He estimated as satisfactory the voting until today. I think that this represents a special day for any democracy, he said.
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