Bosnia Parties Mull Complex Coalition Options

Nikola Spiric, of the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, SNSD, the party that won most votes in Republika Srpska, said that future parliamentary coalitions at both state and entity level should be as broad-based as possible.

It is still uncertain which party or parties will lead the main talks on forming a government as several parties won significant numbers of votes in the recent general election.

"I thought the election campaign ended on voting day - but I have a feeling that a tougher campaign has continued since then," Spiric observed.

He noted that while the main victors were the SNSD in Republika Srpska and the Bosniak Party of Democratic Action, SDA, and Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, in the Federation, these parties "do not have to be - but could be - the majority".

The SNSD's main opponent in the Serbian camp, the Serbian Democratic Party, won five seats, only one less than the SNSD at state level, and won 24 seats, four less than the SNSD, at entity level.

...