Bosnian Serb declares victory in rerun Srebrenica vote

BELGRADE, Serbia

Bosnian Serb candidate Mladen Grujicic on Monday declared victory in a repeat of local elections in the town of Srebrenica despite a boycott of the vote by Bosnian Muslims.

Elections first held last November in Srebrenica and Doboj, in northern Bosnia-Herzegovina, were repeated Sunday after numerous irregularities were reported in the polls.

The historic city of Srebrenica is seen by some as a flashpoint for ethnic tensions, as in 1995 more than 8,300 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were killed there when Bosnian Serb forces attacked a UN "safe area."

Parties supporting Bosnian Muslim candidate Alija Tabakovic announced that they would boycott the election and apply to the Constitutional Court.

Grujicic won 67.62% of the vote while Tabakovic won 31.70%.

Depressed by the boycott, turnout in the election was at 42.87%.

Representatives of the political parties supporting Tabakovic have called for an election do-over.

In the wake of the Nov. 15 elections, in December special police units carried out an operation in Srebrenica on the grounds of voting irregularities and detained many people.

On Jan. 21, election officials ruled that the majority of voters in Srebrenica had voted with invalid documents and decided to cancel the polls.