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Poll Shows Bosnia's Social Democrats Retain Lead In Parliamentary Race
SARAJEVO (AFP) - Bosnia's multi-ethnic Social Democrats retained their lead in opinion polls in the race for both the central parliament and the assembly of the Muslim-Croat half of the country, an independent survey showed Friday, a day before general elections.
On Saturday's elections, Bosnians will vote for the central parliament and the legislative bodies of the country's two postwar entities - the Muslim-Croat Federation and the Serbs' Republika Srpska (RS). In the RS, voters will also elect a president.
In the race for the Muslim-Croat Federation parliament, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) was supported by 40% of 3,600 Bosnians surveyed in late October.
The poll, led by the U.S.-funded National Democratic Institute (NDI), surveyed an equal number of Muslims, Croats and Serbs.
The main Muslim nationalist Party of Democratic Action (SDA) was credited with 18%, while nationalist Croat Democratic Union (HDZ) received 13% support.
The centrist, mainly Muslim Party for Bosnia-Herzegovina (SBIH), a former SDA coalition partner, was equal with HDZ, with 13% support.
For the central parliament, the SDP led with 29% support from those polled, while the nationalist Serb Democratic Party (SDS) had 16%.
The SDA won 12%, while the HDZ had eight percent.
The SBIH was backed with nine percent.
In the race for the RS parliament, the nationalist Serb Democratic Party (SDS) was backed by 46%, followed by Bosnian Serb Prime Minister Milorad Dodik's Party of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD), which had 21%.
The Party of Democratic Progress (PDP) came third with 19%.
The Socialist Party (SPRS), an ally of the SDS, was credited with four percent.
However, the sample for the RS did not include Muslim and Croat refugees, currently displaced abroad or in the federation, but registered to vote for the entity's legislative body.
In the previous elections, Muslims and Croats won 19 seats in the 83-seat RS parliament.
SDS candidate Mirko Sarovic leads the race for the RS president with 52%.
Eight percent of those surveyed had still not made up their minds.
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