Partial results from elections in Bosnia's Serb territory show hardline nationalists losing ground and possibly failing to secure a majority in the parliament, Western officials and local media said yesterday. The political party loyal to the Western-backed Bosnian Serb President, Ms Biljana Plavsic, had won 35 to 40 per cent of the vote in this north-western town and drawn significant support in eastern towns previously dominated by the hardliners, according to partial results.
The US and European governments pushed for the early elections in the hope of depriving the hardliners of a majority and to help clear the way for enforcing the country's peace agreement.
If current trends held, the hardline Serb Democratic Party (SDS) and the allied Radical party would fall just short of a majority in the 83-seat national assembly, officials familiar with the voting results said.
Ballots cast in remote areas and by refugees living abroad had yet to be counted. Voters in the countryside were likely to back the hardliners but Muslim and Croat refugees voting for their own parties could tip the balance against the hardliners.
The weekend vote provided the first electoral test for rival Serb factions following a tense power struggle that erupted in June.
The US has led a Western campaign of support for President Plavsic in her battle against hardliners loyal to Dr Radovan Karadzic, a wartime Serb leader and indicted war criminal.
Western governments have injected reconstruction aid into Ms Plavsic's stronghold of Banja Luka, donated equipment to television studios under her control and provided campaign funds for her new political party.
The West, frustrated with the slow-moving peace process, views Ms Plavsic as a more pragmatic alternative to her former associates in the hardline SDS.
The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), which supervised the vote, said ballot counting had begun on Sunday evening but that, in line with past practice, final official results would not be announced for about two weeks.
The OSCE mission, which deployed some 1,500 international supervisors at polling stations, said voter turnout was possibly as high as 70 per cent, despite poor weather.
The head of the OSCE mission, Mr Robert Frowick, a US diplomat, said he expected the election to introduce "pluralism" to the 83-seat parliament. If the hardliners prevail, Mr Frowick said it would represent a "missed opportunity" for promoting more pragmatic elements in Serb territory.
President Plavsic dissolved the national assembly, which was dominated by hardliners, in July. She called for early elections and criticised Dr Karadzic's clique as "corrupt and autocratic".
Her main opponent, Mr Momcilo Krajisnik, has portrayed the president as a tool of foreign powers who he says are trying to divide the Serb nation.