Sarajevo – Krajisnik and VRS General Colic attended the first SCMM session. Another obligation from the DPA was implemented, and the SCMM was the last joint institution left to be established. The SCMM’s main aim is to stabilise the situation and find a solution for overcoming conflicts if they occur. Krajisnik stated that the meeting was successful and that they harmonised the modalities of future work. Colic said that the SCMM will only discuss military issues and security which are the things people are worried about the most. HR Principle Deputy Klein said that today’s meeting represents a historical moment in functioning of the joint institutions because the military aspect is the most difficult one to control and to find a joint solution for.
3:00
Pale – the head of the SDS Directorate, Vlado Vrkes announced that SDS, despite the IC pressure and establishment of many political parties, triumphed at the local elections, whereas SRS (Serb Radical Party) is the second one on the list. He concluded that parties that supported Plavsic faced disaster. It is obvious that the Serbs voted for the parties which respected the Constitution and preserved the Parliament.
RS PEC President, Cancar announced the latest election results. According to the figures, 93% of people who were registered voted at the elections. RS PEC is still waiting for results of voting in absence which is being counted at the warehouses in Rajlovac and Lukavica. According to unofficial figures in the RS Sarajevo and Herzegovina regions, SDS and SRS parties are in the lead. Cancar confirmed that ballots were used in the most democratic way possible, and that there was no abuse. Cancar hopes that the RS PEC will have more information tomorrow, adding that the most complicated part of the whole process is actual counting of ballots at polling stations. Once again he thanked all voters for voting with dignity and not causing any incidents.
3:00
Election results report:
Brcko – Buha once said that people would never forget what SDS did for them, so they really did not forget it this time either. According to preliminary results, 55% of voters supported the SDS party, 18% the SRS, and 15% the RS Socialist Party. SRS received the most votes (47%) in the RS municipality of Orasje. SDS received the majority of votes in Bijeljina, 34,9%, whereas SRS received 24% of votes. SRS received the majority of votes in Ugljevik, 48% and SDS received 29% of votes, and in Lopare SDS won with 44% of votes. SDS won majority of votes in the Serb Herzegovina, but in Srbinje (Foca) municipality SRS won 47,9% of votes. SDS also won elections with 95% of votes in the Serb municipality of Mostar. SDS won 100% votes in Trnovo, in Samac 60,4% votes, in Cajnice 51,36% votes, in Serb Ilidza 46,3%, in Pale 55%, in Sokolac 55,7%, in Doboj 48,7%, in Visegrad 47%, in Prijedor 14,637, in Teslic 36%, in Srebrenica 46%, (second party on the list are either SRS or Socialist party). In Banja Luka RS Socialist Party won 18,9%, Serb Party of Krajina and Posavina, 18,4%, and the Coalition for Banja Luka 12,7%. SRS won the majority votes in Serb Sarajevo, 48%.
10:00
Flash news:
At the EU session in Brussels, Foreign Ministers of 15 different countries expressed their satisfaction with the election process, warning that there is still a lot of work to do. NATO Secretary General, Solana also expressed his satisfaction with the elections, inviting politicians to respect people’s decision. He congratulated SFOR and OSCE for putting a lot of efforts in the process. British Foreign Minister, Cook is also satisfied with the organisation and conducting of the local elections.
The Russian media said that the IC can feel relieved now since the most complicated elections ever passed without any incidents. Only a part of Serb refugees could vote where they wanted, whereas Muslims took the advantage. German media reported correctly on the elections, talking about Serbs who were harassed by Croats in Drvar. The Times criticised Croat authorities because of obstructions in Drvar.
Liberation claims that Serbs, Croats, and Muslims voted on 13 and 14 at the elections whose results will not be different than what the current situation is, because OSCE made several changes at the last minute. Austrian media said that the IC should help implement the election results, and the implementation can be encouraged by economic pressure against municipalities that obstruct the results.
Greek media reported that the IC counted on change of authorities in some of the RS key municipalities, and took care of it while establishing the voters’ lists.
4:00
Belgrade – Foreign Ministers of FRY and Croatia, Milutinovic and Granic respectively, held a meeting and agreed on six issues that will establish better co-operation of these two countries in the future.
2:00
Summary SRT TV News Banja Luka
Headlines
The President of the RS Biljana Plavsic signed the contract worth DM 50 000 000The World Bank is going to direct concrete financial means to the Dayton BiH. On that occasion Biljana Plavsic received the Head of Mission of the World Bank, Mr. Rory O’Sullivan today in Banja Luka.
In ten days the World Bank will approve the credit arrangements for the RS under the very convenient conditions for DM 50 000 000.That is the result of today’s Biljana Plavsic’s discussion with Mr Rory O’Sullivan. The documents which will provide the means for the reconstruction of the school buildings , for the furnishing and school equipment were signed. The second part of this credit will be directed to the reconstruction of the roads and the bridges in the RS. The similar arrangements have already been approved in the Federation entity and they represent only the smaller part of the international financial help which will continue in the next year. In October the World Bank will provide the financial support to the privatization and to the reform of the Bank system and for the reconstruction of the power net. By the end of the year , we are expecting the help to the RS budget and the agriculture, forestry , water supply and public services.
Biljana Plavsic said:
“The loan will be assigned for the reconstruction of primary and secondary education, for the repairing of the school buildings, furnishing and equipping. The second part of that help is for the reconstruction of the roads and bridges .This is only a part of one very big project which will start, I hope, next year, and I have to say that we will have school buildings, furniture and pupils, but we won’t have the salaries to pay out the professors and to complete this whole process in the way that should be completed.”
In this way the IC made it clear once again that it is determined to correct the very incorrect imbalance towards the RS when it comes to the concrete financial help.
6 min. 15 sec.
In the most of the cities of the RS, SDS won the biggest number of votes
The results of the municipal elections in the RS have been the main subject in the media today , in the political circles and among the people. It seems that someone of the foreign reporters made absolutely correct prognosis about the results of the elections with three sentences:
- The Muslims showed a maximum activity voting on the other territory.
- The Croats protected their territories at any price from both, the Moslem and the Serb voters.
- The Serbs provided the best conditions for voting.
Time will show if the Serb authorities made a useful step towards the world community with this approach.
According to the current, although uncompleted information, SDS won the majority of the Board positions in Brcko, Bijeljina, Doboj, Prijedor, Gradiska, Trebinje, Modrica, Visegrad, Novi Grad, Kozarska Dubica, Samac, Pelagicevo, Knezevo, Trnovo, Krupa na Uni, Kotor Varos, Pale and Ilidza.
SRS won the majority in Srbinje, Srpsko Sarajevo, Srpski Sanski Most, Ugljevik, Bratunac and Srpsko Orasje.
SPS won the trust of the people from Banja Luka, Sipovo, Mrkonjic Grad and Celinac.
SNSD leads in Srbac and Laktasi.
Petar Cancar, the President of the Republic Electoral Commission said: “According to the information received at the Center of the Republic Electoral Commission, 95 % of the registered persons voted on the territory of the RS personally.
We received and worked on results from the 30 municipalities until now, including the electoral unit in Banja Luka, too. We have the total number of voters, the number of irregular ballots, the number of the votes that each political party won, but all those information are temporary because we do not have the results of the absentee voters. We hope that we will have the final results for 61 municipalities by tomorrow afternoon and that we will present this to the public in an adequate way.”
3 min. 35 sec.
In Banja Luka, the socialists won.
The voting results in Banja Luka are known. From 114 000 registered persons, 90789 voted. Until the officials results, the schedule of the first ten parties in Banja Luka is the following:
- SPS with 17 227 votes or 18,97 %
- Serb Party for Krajina and Posavina with 16 704 votes or 18, 04%
- The Coalition for Banja Luka with 11 529 votes or 12, 07 %
- DPS with 10 805 votes or 11, 05 %
- SDS with 9491 votes or 10, 45 %
- SPAS with 6319 votes or 6, 96 %
- SRS with 4 958 votes or 5, 05 %
- Party of Serb Unity with 2035 votes or 2, 24 %
- The Socialist Worker’s Party of FRY with 1360 votes or 1, 05 %
- Party for BiH with 946 votes or 1, 04 %
The final structure of the Municipal Assembly will be known after counting of 18 – 19 000 ballots from Europe, FRY and 3579 unconfirmed ballots sent to Sarajevo,.
2 min. 40 sec.
The biggest electoral problem was Drvar where local Croatians authorities did everything to stop the persistent people from Drvar to vote in their town. This was concluded by the representatives of the IC, too. Around 1580 people from Drvar who were registered on the electoral lists and who came with 29 buses and 86 private vehicles managed to vote in their town after all. This was confirmed on today’s press conference for the journalists in Banja Luka by Alun Roberts, the spokesman for IPTF. He added that beside numerous incidents, a few people have been beaten up.
The spokesman for OSCE stated that the polling stations were closed at 19:00 hours everywhere else except in Drvar, Travnik and Brcko. When the journalists insisted on revealing the culprit who caused the problems for the people from Drvar, he said that if some should be responsible that is the local Croatian police.
1 min.
The world diplomacy assessed the elections in the Dayton BiH as the most complicated elections in the history
Russian media said that the IC can be relieved because the most complicated elections passed without big incidents
The French magazine “Liberation” claims that the Serbs, Moslems and Croats were choosing their representatives in the elections , but the results will not be applied.
Austrian commentators said today that the elections in the RS and FBiH passed without problems.
Spanish magazines are informing about the elections writing the titles, ” Surprisingly peaceful elections”, “The elections under the special supervising” , “Divided country”, and ” Change or farce”.
3 min. 40 sec.
In the afternoon hours we received the announcement of the MUP in Banja Luka. The employed in the Center for the Public and State Security received the note that in the Street of Milovan Hrvacanin 24, a private house was mined. One policeman was injured when he tried to remove the mine. The armed group who organized this escaped.
1min. 02 sec.
Health employees in Banja Luka warned the Government on their very difficult material position.
There were rumors that the health employees are on strike. We talked with the head of the Clinic Center in Banja Luka and he told us that they are not on strike but they are protesting. They have their requests for paying out the salaries from June, paying the night overtime.
2min. 28 sec.