Preliminary results from Mostar's first local election in 12 years showed that rival ethno-nationalist parties won most of the votes.

However, multiethnic moderate parties and alliances were also projected to win enough support to act as a kingmaker in the future 35-member city council.

The Party of Democratic Action (SDA) is the dominant nationalist Bosniak party while the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) is the largest political party of Bosnian Croats. 

It is still unclear whether the two main parties will form a coalition together, or enter into alliances with the smaller parties. 

Citizens in Mostar cast their votes on Sunday after the ethnically divided city agreed on long-disputed electoral rules.

Located in southern Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mostar is famous for its 16th century Ottoman-era bridge. The bridge was destroyed during the country's 1992-95 war and then rebuilt in the early 2000s. 

Muslim Bosniaks and Catholic Croats have fought for control over the city throughout the conflict, and remain largely separated by the city's river. Damaged buildings and poor infrastructure dominate the city's center to this day.

Sued by philosophy teacher

Mostar has not held a local election since 2008 when the country's constitutional court declared its election rules to be discriminatory and ordered that they be changed.

The local politicians only managed to settle a dispute following a 2019 court ruling. The case was launched by philosophy teacher Irma Baralija, who filed a suit against Bosnia at the European Court of Human Rights for failing to hold elections in Mostar.

"This is a very emotional day, for us this has already been a victory," Baralija told Reuters TV, after casting her ballot.

Baralija ran for a city council seat on the ticket of the small, multiethnic Our Party, which formed an alliance with the Social Democratic Party that was projected to win at least six seats.

Calls for better infrastructure

Voters chose 35 city councillors from six ethnically-based electoral units and a central city zone.

The SDA and HDZ hope to retain the power they have had over the past decade.

But the multiethnic parties are likely to be tiebreakers in the city council where support by a supermajority of legislators is required to elect the mayor and pass any consequential changes of the city charter, and a number of other crucial bills.

Until now, the SDA and HDZ have each governed their own part of the splintered city and its separate utilities, postal companies, universities and hospitals.

Many residents are hoping Mostar will see improvements so that its young people no longer have to search for opportunities elsewhere. Thousands of the city's citizens have left abroad in the hopes of a better life.

"I expect the city to start functioning because so far nothing has been functioning," Reuters cited Hedija Hadzic, a woman in her 50s, as saying. "At least we'll get the city council."

According to election authorities, around 55% of about 100,000 registered voters had cast their ballots by the time polling stations closed at 1800 GMT. 

The election was carried out without any major incidents and irregularities. 

adi, mvb/nm (AP, Reuters)