Bosnian Croats Win Re-run Poll in Divided Stolac

The main Bosnian Croat party, the Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, pulled off an expected victory in the heavily monitored renewed elections in the divided southwestern town of Stolac, Bosnia's Central Election Commission reported.

HDZ candidate Stjepan Boskovic was elected new-old mayor of Stolac and the HDZ also won 49 per cent of the votes for the town council. 

The election on Sunday, which was closely monitored by the Central Election Commission, the security forces and independent observers, passed off without incident and with only few sporadic irregularities, officials said.

The Central Election Commission said the voter turnout was high at 75.57 per cent, or 7,566 voters.

The elections were expected to resolve a dispute between an ethnic Bosniak-led opposition coalition and the HDZ.

It is also hoped the result will to put an end to growing tensions between ethnic Croats and Bosniaks in Stolac in general since last year's failed local election.

A coalition of mainly Bosniak parties, running under the name "Initiative for Stolac" last year claimed that the HDZ had only retained power in the town by rigging every local election since the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia.

Violence erupted on October 2, on election day, as opposition Bosniak activists said they tried to stop Bosnian Croat voters from using irregular documents to cast ballots.

Electoral disputes led to a physical altercation between the Bosniak mayoral candidate and the ethnic Croat head of the local election commission.

Order was restored by authorities but the voting was then cancelled and no ballots were counted. Since then, each side has sued the other in various courts.

The Central Election Commission meanwhile removed the Bosniak mayoral...