BOSNIA HERZEGOVINA/CROATIA: REFUGEES TO VOTE IN POLLS AHEAD OF MAIN SEPTEMBER ELECTIONS.

Record ID: 275064

  • Title: BOSNIA HERZEGOVINA/CROATIA: REFUGEES TO VOTE IN POLLS AHEAD OF MAIN SEPTEMBER ELECTIONS.
  • Date: 28th August 1996
  • Summary: ZAGREB, CROATIA / SARAJEVO, BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA (AUGUST 23 AND 28, 1996) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) ZAGREB, CROATIA (AUGUST 23, 1996) 1. GV/MV: EXTERIOR CROATIAN COMMISSION FOR REFUGEES/ SIGN (2 SHOTS) 0.09 2. GV/MV: HEAD OF CROATIAN GOVERNMENT COMMISSION FOR REFUGEES DAMIR ZORIC SHOWING BALLOT BOX AND BALLOT PAPERS AND SAYING
  • Embargoed: 12th September 1996 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: ZAGREB, CROATIA / SARAJEVO, BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA
  • City:
  • Country: Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • Reuters ID: LVA4TZZHEE5Z30ZTS4IRERQVI7S6
  • Story Text: INTRO: Voting in Bosnian elections officially takes place on September 14. But thousands of refugees, displaced by years of conflict, will vote on Thursday (August 29) and Bosnian refugees in Croatia will be among the first to post their ballots.

    The OSCE has begun delivering ballot boxes to regional centres in Bosnia ahead of the poll.

    -------------------------------------------------------------------- The head of Croatia's office for refugees and displaced persons on Friday (August 23) presented a final list of Bosnian voters eligible to vote in Croatia.

    Damir Zoric said that of more than 117,000 registered Bosnian voters currently living in Croatia fewer than 14,000 had decided to return to Bosnia. They would be voting in Croatia.

    Zoric was speaking after a meeting with the central coordination office for elections outside Bosnia.

    Zoric displayed samples of ballot papers and ballot boxes. He said that once the boxes at polling stations throughout Croatia are filled, they will be sealed and transported under heavy security first to the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) headquarters in Zagreb and then on to Sarajevo for counting.

    But most Bosnian refugees living in Croatia do not understand the complex voting procedures they will have to follow. Many of them also are unfamiliar with the elections candidates for their region back in Bosnia.

    Most Bosnian Moslem refugees say they will vote for a unified Bosnia and Herzegovina.

    Bosnian Croats, on the other hand, say they will vote for Croatian representatives and showed suspicion that the elections could result in ethnic unification of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

    On the outskirts of Sarajevo, Greek Implementation Force (IFOR) soldiers arrived at a warehouse early on Wednesday (August 28) to begin loading the first of 22,500 ballot boxes to be distributed to IFOR bases throughout the country in the next three days.

    The flat-packed ballot boxes, along with voting screens and voting kits, will be stored on IFOR bases until a week before the elections. They will then be delivered to municipal authorities, who will be responsible for establishing the 4,468 polling stations needed to accommodate as many as two million voters on election day.


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