Although moderates appear to have gained some ground in Bosnia's third post-war elections over the weekend, which analysts say is encouraging, nationalists prove to be still the leading force in the Balkans country.
"The triumph of nationalist parties had been expected, especially since the campaign has been dominated by major ethnic rather than local issues," political analyst Emir Habul told AFP.
"The relative success of moderates in such an atmosphere is an encouraging sign for democracy."
Partial results from 46 of the 142 municipalities showed that three powerful nationalist parties that instigated the 1992-95 war - the Muslim Party of Democratic Action (SDA), the Croat Democratic Union (HDZ) and the Serb Democratic Party (SDS) - were ahead of the pack.
The results were based on less than 50 percent of the votes counted in Saturday's local polls to elect councillors in 142 municipalities and 140 mayors.
More complete results were due to be announced late on Sunday.
The major surprise of the vote was the strong showing of the moderate Union of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) in Bosnia's Serb-run part.
The party dealt a serious blow to the ruling SDS - founded by fugitive war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic - in Bosnia's biggest Serb-run city of Banja Luka, the electoral commission said.
But even more surprisingly it appeared to have won in some municipalities of the traditionally hard-line eastern parts of Republika Srpska.
The Serb-run Republika Srpska along with the Muslim-Croat Federation makes up Bosnia after the 1992-95 war. The two entities are linked by weak central institutions.
"One must not forget recent actions by the international community against the SDS ... they (SDS) expected to gain from it, but it was the story of their corruption that attracted a lot of attention," Habul said.
The top international representative in Bosnia, Paddy Ashdown, in June dismissed 60 Bosnian Serb officials, mostly SDS members, accused of aiding war crimes fugitives including Karadzic.
He also ordered an audit of the SDS which revealed that the party was prone to corruption and tax evasion and had links to the criminal underworld.
The moderate SNSD "sometimes flirted with the nationalists' agenda, but they knew that the corruption of the authorities is what ordinary people care about the most so it was the focus of their campaign," Senad Slatina of the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank, told AFP.
"We expected the low turnout to help nationalists, but the big story appears to be the surprise success of the moderates in some of the most unusual places."
Turnout was 45.52 percent, the lowest registered in any post-war election so far, reflecting widespread apathy among the 2.3 million eligible voters burdened by economic hardship.
Nationalists were also in the lead in the Muslim-Croat part of Bosnia, but the key opposition force there, the multi-ethnic Social Democrats (SDP), claimed to have retained power in Sarajevo's crucial municipalities and the major north-eastern town of Tuzla.
Despite international calls to vote for reform, the three nationalist parties, helped by a few minor allies, won the Bosnian general election in 2002, ending a brief period of governance by moderates.
They have since pledged to establish closer links with Nato and the European Union, but the necessary reform process remains far too slow by the international community's standards.
The international election observation mission assessed Saturday's vote as having been "administered in line with international standards."
"The successful conduct of these elections was a noteworthy achievement, which marks further progress towards democracy and the rule of law under domestic control," head of the mission Peter Eicher said.
The 2002 general election was the first nation-wide poll to have been organised by the Bosnian authorities since the war ended. Saturday's ballots were the first local elections they have organised since the war.