KARAN LEADS WITH MORE THAN 50 PERCENT OF VOTES

SARAJEVO, NOVEMBER 24 /SRNA/ – Siniša Karan, the SNSD candidate in the early election for the President of Republika Srpska, won 217,324 votes, or 50.30 percent, according to the preliminary, unofficial, and incomplete results published this morning by the BiH Central Election Commission /CEC/.

After 99.72 percent of polling stations were processed, Branko Blanuša, the SDS candidate, is in second place with 208,955 votes, or 48.37 percent. Dragan Đokanović of the Alliance for a New Policy received 1,877 votes /0.43 percent/, while Nikola Lazarević of the Ecological Party of Republika Srpska won 1,583 votes /0.37 percent/. Independent candidate Igor Gašević received 1,284 votes /0.30 percent/, and Slavko Dragičević received 1,012 votes /0.23 percent/. According to CEC data, out of 1,264,364 registered voters, 439,897 cast ballots in yesterday’s election, representing 34.79 percent turnout. There were 432,035 valid ballots /98.21 percent/, 853 blank ballots /0.19 percent/, and 7,009 invalid ballots by other criteria /1.59 percent/.