Sarajevo - Bosnian Social Democrats, the international community's hope for reducing the influence of Muslim nationalists, claimed the lead yesterday in legislative polls.
The Social Democratic Party (SDP) is the leading party on both the state and the Muslim-Croat Federation level, Mr Zlatko Lagumdzija, the party's chairman, told a press briefing. He said that first estimates indicated his party would double its seats in Bosnia's central parliament.
With official results not due until today, the outlook was unclear and all three nationalist parties claimed to have done well despite the assertions by the multi-ethnic SDP. The biggest blow to Western officials trying to stabilise the Balkans came with indications of a strong showing for the Serb Democratic Party in Bosnia's Serb republic at the expense of the Western-backed prime minister, Mr Milorad Dodik.