Croat party

Two war victims' associations in Bosnia and Herzegovina on Thursday urged the prime minister of the Croat- and Bosniak-dominated Federation entity, Nermin Niksic, to condemn statements made by the Federation's president Lidija Bradara and minister of culture and sport, Sanja Vlaisavljevic, claiming that they expressed support for convicted war criminals.

Ljubljana – Faris Kočan, a researcher at the Centre of International Relations at the Ljubljana Faculty of Social Sciences, believes the results of the general elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina available so far indicate time may have come for civic ideas as opposed to nationalism.

They warn that years of political divisions, zero-sum games, distrust and poor communication between local leaders, as well as growing tensions among key regional and global actors, have left Bosnia a ticking time-bomb that could go off at any moment, leading to the collapse of the remaining joint institutions or even the breakup of the country.

Representatives of former wartime prisoners in the southern town of Stolac said that the anniversary march on Thursday organised by Bosnia and Herzegovina's main Croat party, the Croatian Democratic Union, sent a "dangerous message".

Fahrudin Radoncic  Photo: EPA/FEHIM DEMIR

"We did not talk about any names, as that decision will be discussed in the following weeks," Adisa Omerbegovic Arapovic, the vice president of SBB, said in Sarajevo on Thursday, answering questions about whether Radoncic was promised the Bosnian Ministry of Security.

The hard-line leader of the Bosnian Serbs, Milorad Dodik, has won the Serbian seat on Bosnia's tripartite state presidency, according to still incomplete results from Sunday's elections.

Politicians in Bosnia and Herzegovina have already started announcing who will run for posts on the country's three-member presidency in elections not due until October.

They have done so despite the risk that the elections might be postponed, owing to problems with reform of the electoral process.

Two of the main opposition Bosnian parties, the Social Democratic Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina (SDPBiH) and the Democratic Front (DF), are presenting a joint proposal for the reform of Mostar's electoral statute in order to end the city's political deadlock.

Leaders of the main Bosniak and Croat parties in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Party of Democratic Action, SDA, and the Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, have started talks with parties on forming a new ruling coalition.