Nationalists ahead as Bosnia presidency votes counted

SARAJEVO, Oct 13 (AFP): Nationalist candidates appeared headed for victory Monday in Bosnia's three-way presidency, threatening new political instability in a country that still bears the scars of inter-ethnic war.

Partial results showed the head of the Muslim SDA party, Bakir Izetbegovic, was set to win his second term as the Muslim member of the joint presidency, which also includes a Serb and a Croat representative.

The unwieldy arrangement is part of a political system created by the US-brokered Dayton peace accord that ended a 1992-95 ethnic war in which some 100,000 people were killed.

But although Bosnia-Herzegovina has been at peace since that bloodletting, Sunday's general election, which also included parliamentary polls, laid bare mass discontent over the economy and division along ethnic lines.

With about 77 percent of ballots counted, Izetbegovic-the son of Bosnia's late wartime leader Alija Izetbegovic-had 33.16 percent of the votes.

Izetbegovic, 58, all but claimed victory, saying that the nationalist SDA would emerge as the main power and the "basis for all future coalitions."