BOSNIA: NIKOLA POPLASEN WINS ELECTION

(26 Sep 1998) Eng/Serbo-Croat/Nat A hardline nationalist has won the Bosnian Serb presidency, but Western envoys insist the general election has helped strengthen peace in the war-torn Balkan country. The results of the election were announced on Friday by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (O-S-C-E), which oversaw the vote earlier this month. The O-S-C-E confirmed that the ultranationalist Nikola Poplasen defeated Western-backed Biljana Plavsic for the presidency. Ten days after voting, results from the Bosnian election had still not be announced by the election referees, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The O-S-C-E had been under pressure to make the results public, particularly from supporters of the hardline candidate, Nikola Poplasen. They accused the organisation of delay tactics because it was unhappy with his victory. But when the results were announced on Friday, Poplasen had won by 38-thousand votes. SOUNDBITE: (Serbo-Croat) "We have heard the preliminary results and it's quite obvious that our coalition of the Serb Radical Party and the Serb Democratic Party has won. And as for me personally, as a candidate for the Presidency I have also won. This is a first-class result for the Serb Radical Party and it's a major step, although I think that all the candidates have to wait for the official ratification of the results by O-S-C-E" SUPER CAPTION: Nikola Poplasen, Bosnian Serb Republic President Elect Despite the overall victory of Ultranationalist Poplasen, the O-S-C-E said the election results also showed significant gains by more moderate opposition parties in other parts of the country. Bosnians voted nationwide on September 12th and 13th for several levels of authority in their complicated state structure. Bosnia is divided between a Bosnian Serb republic and a federation of Muslims and Croats. Both provinces have their own governments but are linked by a third joint central government. International officials had hoped the elections would further sideline hard-line nationalists. But Poplasen opposes ethnic tolerance and other provisions of a 1995 peace agreement. O-S-C-E said the announcement of the result had been postponed due to complicated counting procedures and technical problems. Confirmation of the results has come more than ten days late, and even now the organisation says results are still unofficial and require certification by an electoral commission. Until that happens,the O-S-C-E said they were withholding announcement of seat allocations. Western officials said they were very wary of Poplasen's intentions. SOUNDBITE: (English) "He is talking publicly, he is sending out signals to us privately of wanting to work with us and the rest of the western community. But given the background of his party, given his background and the background of their associate Mr Sesel in Yugoslavia we obviously have severe doubts about this." SUPERCAPTION: Robert Gelbard, U-S Special Envoy for Bosnia A strong showing of moderate parties in the assembly of the Serb republic could neutralise eventual attempts of Poplasen to nominate a hard-liner for premier. It could also help guard against a move away from Bosnia's peace accord. Moderate opposition parties fared better in the Muslim-Croat federation, which makes up the other half of Bosnia. The pro-Western Serb candidate for the three-member joint presidency, Zivko Radisic, won over the hard-line candidate, Momcilo Krajisnik. Krajisnik was seen as one of the biggest obstacles to the work of joint Bosnian institutions. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...