SARAJEVO (Bosnia and Herzegovina), October 13 (SeeNews) – Bakir Izetbegovic from the Party for Democratic Action (SDA) and Dragan Covic from the HDZ-BiH party are poised to become the Bosniak and Croat representatives in Bosnia's tripartite presidency, while the race for the Serb member is tighter following Sunday’s election, preliminary data of the state election commission indicated on Monday.
Bosnia and Herzegovina is made up of two autonomous entities, the Muslim-Croat Federation and the Serb Republic.
The three representatives of the Bosnian presidency - one Bosnian Muslim or Bosniak, one Serb, one Croat, are elected for a four-year term. The chairmanship rotates every eight months.
In the Serb Republic, Zeljka Cvijanovic from the coalition led by the Union of Independent Social Democrats has won 154,656 votes, followed by Mladen Ivanic from the opposition coalition Union for Change, who has won 153,446 votes, election commission data showed after ballots at 52% of polling stations were counted.
Izetbegovic has garnered 194,455 votes, ahead of Radoncic Fahrudin from the Union for a Better Future of Bosnia and Herzegovina (SBB) who was backed by 156,469 voters.
HDZ-BiH leader Covic garnered 88,994 ballots while his main rival Martin Ragus from HDZ 1990 has won 67,948 votes, data showed after votes at 76.52% of polling stations were counted for both Bosniak and Croat representatives.
There were 17 candidates in the race for the Bosnian presidency, including ten for the Bosniak seat, four for a Croat representative and three for a Serb member.
Voter turnout was 54.14%, Bosnian daily Nezavisne Novine (www.nezavisne.com) reported on Monday, quoting the president of the election commission, Stjepan Mikic.
The 3.2 million eligible voters in Bosnia and Herzegovina could also cast ballots to elect the central parliament, representatives for the parliaments it the two entities, ten cantonal assemblies in the Muslim-Croat Federation and a president of the Serb Republic.