Bosnians have elected leaders with opposing views on how to run the country after international supervision ends next year, preliminary results of yesterday's general election showed.
Former wartime foreign and prime minister Haris Silajdzic, the Muslim who wants to abolish the two-entity state to unify Bosnia, had an unassailable lead in the race for the Muslim seat on the tripartite state presidency.
Bosnia Serb Prime Minister Milorad Dodik, who has warned of secession if Mr Silajdzic continues to threaten the autonomy and existence of Bosnia's Serb Republic, easily won re-election.
Their rhetoric inflamed voters in the Serb Republic and the Muslim-Croat federation in the run-up to the general election, the fifth since the 1995 Dayton Accords ended the 1992-95 Bosnia war and created a two-party state.
"We have ethnic representation, not citizens' representation. There are obviously parties that have a different concept . . . so we'll have to talk," Mr Silajdzic said after results were announced.
Bosnia's presidency has a Muslim, a Serb and a Croat member and the chair rotates. It shares executive powers with the government whose head it nominates.
Mr Silajdzic's Serb colleague in the collective presidency will be Nebojsa Radmanovic of Dodik's Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, who swept the field with 56 per cent of votes.
The office of peace overseer Christian Schwarz-Schilling, who can sack officials and impose laws, will shut down in mid-2007. The EU has no plans to withdraw its 6,000 peacekeepers but said today it would reduce their number soon.
A successful transition of power to Bosnians after the dismantling of the protectorate set up after the 1992-95 war would demonstrate to Brussels that the former Yugoslav republic can function on its own, boosting its EU membership chances.