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WASHINGTON, April 10 (AFP)-The U.S. has commended the Bosnian people on the municipal elections that saw nationalist parties popular support ebb although they still retain the upper hand. State Department spokesperson James Rubin noted that turnout for Saturday's election had been high despite some problems with voters finding polling stations and poor weather in some parts of the country. "All in all the election went well," he said in a statement, calling the vote "fair and peaceful. We commend the Bosnian people for the steps they are taking to assume responsibility, through voting in these elections, to support a democratic process," said Rubin. The Bosnian Serb news agency SRNA reported that the Bosnian Serb nationalist Democratic Party (SDS) scored victories in 47 of 61 municipalities in Republika Srpska, the Bosnian Serb-run half of the divided country. In the remaining seven elections, Prime Minister Milorad Dodik's Party of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) won control of five town councils, while former Bosnian Serb president Biljana Plavsic's Serb People's Alliance (SNS) was victorious in two. The elections were the country's second since the 1992-1995 war. Of the 146 councils contested, 61 were in Republika Srpska and 85 were in the other half of Bosnia, the Muslim-Croat Federation.
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