October 3 (SeeNews) - Bosniak and Bosnian Serb nationalist parties are in the lead for seats in the state-level parliament after the parliamentary and presidential elections held in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the central electoral commission said on Monday, citing partial results.
Bosniak nationalist conservative Party of Democratic Action (SDA) has won 24.87% of the votes for members of the national House of Representatives in Sunday's elections in the Federation entity, while in the Serb Republic, the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) of Bosnian Serb nationalist leader Milorad Dodik led with 42.44% of the vote, according to preliminary results published on the website of the electoral commission.
The results were based on the ballots counted in 70.42% of polling stations.
In the Federation, SDA is followed by a coalition led by the Croatian Democratic Party (HDZ BiH), with 19.43% of the votes, and the Social Democratic Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina (SDP), with 12.42%, the preliminary results showed.
In the Serb Republic, the conservative Serb Democratic Party (SDS) came second with 18.83% of the votes and the Party of Democratic Progress (PDP) was third with 11.17%.
A total of 33 parties competed for 42 seats in the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the state-level Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the other being the House of Peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The members of the House of Representatives are elected for a four-year term.
In the vote for the country's tripartite presidency, Zeljka Cvijanovic, candidate of SNSD, won 52.87% of the votes cast in the Serb Republic, with 85.35% of all ballots counted in the entity.
In the Federation, Denis Becirovic of opposition coalition United for Free Bosnia and Herzegovina leads in the race for the seat of the Bosniak member with 57% of the votes, while Zeljko Komsic, leader of the Democratic Front party and the current Croat member of the presidency, is set to win again with 53.61% of the votes.
The results for Becirovic and Komsic are based on 84.75% of all ballots cast in the Federation.
The three members of the Bosnian collective presidency (one Bosnian Muslim or Bosniak, one Serb, one Croat) are elected for a four-year term. Incumbents are eligible for a second term and become ineligible for the post for four years after the second term. The candidate who won most votes in Sunday's presidential elections will become chairman of the presidency unless he or she was the incumbent chairman at the time of the election. The chairmanship rotates every eight months.
According to the US-brokered Dayton peace agreement that put an end to the war in Bosnia in the 1990s, the country is divided into two entities -- the Serb Republic (mostly populated by ethnic Serbs) and the Federation (majority populated by Bosniaks and Croats), covering 49% and 51% of the country's territory, respectively. The Brcko District, functioning under a decentralised system of local government, was created in 2000, out of land from both entities to reflect its multi-ethnic nature.
The Federation and the Serb Republic have their own governments and parliaments and are linked by a weak central government. The Federation is divided into 10 cantons with their own governments and parliaments. An international overseeing body holds the supreme authority in the country.