We don't even know how many on the electoral lists no longer exist.' In the words of Carl Bildt, the international community's representative, 'We will have elections in a country where more than half the electorate have been displaced. Second, spokesmen for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) admit that inaccurate and outdated election lists are ripe for manipulation. Indeed, the expulsion of Muslim families from the Serb entity continues to this day, while Serbs are still being hounded out of the Sarajevo suburbs. People are unable to return to their homes to vote. Four major impediments will distort the process.įirst, despite the presence of an international peacekeeping force (IFOR), there is minimal freedom of movement for Bosnia's citizens. Ten series of elections from the local to the central level are to be held despite the absence of proper conditions for a 'free and fair' ballot, even by post-communist standards. In this scenario, a formidable long-range effort will be required to transform the country into a civil democracy. Evidence increasingly indicates that the ballot imposed by the international community will not only strengthen the ethno-nationalist parties, but will legitimize the divisions between ethnically homogenous entities. With elections scheduled for mid-September, Bosnia-Herzegovina is perched between reintegration and partition.

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