BOSNIA-ELECTION REAX/BANJA LUKA Residents of Bosnia's Serb Republic hope for better life following election.
Record ID:
565601
BOSNIA-ELECTION REAX/BANJA LUKA Residents of Bosnia's Serb Republic hope for better life following election.
- Title: BOSNIA-ELECTION REAX/BANJA LUKA Residents of Bosnia's Serb Republic hope for better life following election.
- Date: 13th October 2014
- Summary: BANJA LUKA , BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA (OCTOBER 13, 2014) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF ORTHODOX CHURCH PEOPLE WALKING IN STREET MAN WALKING PAST ELECTION POSTER OF MILORAD DODIK, PRESIDENT OF BOSNIAN SERB REPUBLIC MAN HOLDING NEWSPAPERS WALKING PAST ELECTION BANNER FEATURING MILORAD DODIK (LEFT) AND ZELJKA CVIJANOVIC (RIGHT) FROM ALLIANCE OF INDEPENDENT SOCIAL DEMOCRATS (SOUNDBITE) (Bosnian) BANJA LUKA RESIDENT, BRANKO, SAYING: "For many years no progress has been seen, so we lost all our hopes and faith, but something has to happen." (SOUNDBITE) (Bosnian) PENSIONER FROM BANJA LUKA, DUSAN ATLAGIC, SAYING: "Well, it should be better, it is really impossible to live like this. I am a pensioner but the young should get more jobs, that's important, more jobs." ELECTION BANNER OF OGNJEN TADIC, OPPOSITION CANDIDATE FOR BOSNIAN SERB PRESIDENT. STREET VENDOR (SOUNDBITE) (Bosnian) BANJA LUKA RESIDENT BOJAN DRAGISIC, SAYING: "I expect more jobs for young people, new factories, new companies." (SOUNDBITE) (Bosnian) WOMAN FROM BANJA LUKA JELKA LAZIC, SAYING: "We must expect that it will get better, always hope for the better, to go forward, not backwards. It's not easy these days but for those who have plans for the future, something will happen. Not all people are bad, there are good people too." GOVERNMENT BUILDING WITH BOSNIAN SERB FLAG ON MAST
- Embargoed: 28th October 2014 12:00
- Keywords:
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVACNTK9X3J436ZA60DLQ0V9CUKQ
- Story Text: With final poll results expected on Monday afternoon (October 13) nationalists with little shared vision of Bosnia's future were in the lead in an election for the three-person presidency.
The result will likely portend more dysfunction in a country still haunted by the divisions of the 1992-95 war.
Based on a partial vote-count, authorities said Bakir Izetbegovic, Dragan Covic and Zeljka Cvijanovic were out in front in the race for the tri-partite state presidency, as the Bosniak, Croat and Serb representatives respectively.
The presidency steers foreign policy but little else. The results, however, are an indication of the way the parliamentary elections may go too.
The presidency is part of an unwieldy system of power-sharing between Bosnia's former warring sides - Muslim Bosniaks, Orthodox Christian Serbs and Catholic Croats - set down by a 1995 U.S.-brokered accord to end a war in which an estimated 100,000 people died.
But in the Bosnian Serb Republic, Milorad Dodik declared his re-election as the President of Bosnia's autonomous Serb Republic on Monday almost nine hours after the closing of polling stations.
Speaking to reporters in Banja Luka, Dodik said votes were still being counted but he believed his lead was unassailable.
Residents of the Bosnian Serb Republic were hopeful for a better future.
"For many years no progress has been seen, so we lost all our hopes, and faith, but something has to happen," said Banja Luka resident Branko.
"We must expect that it will get better, always hope for better, to go forward not backwards. it's not easy these days but for those who have plans for the future, something will happen. Not all people are bad, there are good people too," added Jelka Lazic.
The political system in Bosnia has spawned huge networks of political patronage through government jobs handed out to the party faithful, making change difficult.
An estimated 100,000 people died in Bosnia's 1992-95 war during the collapse of the socialist Yugoslav federation.
Limited Western efforts to encourage reform of the political system in Bosnia have run into the sand.
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