PM's candidate wins Bosnian Serb president vote

SARAJEVO (Reuters) - The candidate nominated by the party of the Serb Republic Prime Minister Milorad Dodik won the presidential election in the Bosnian Serb region with 42 percent of the vote, election officials said on Monday.

The final count of all ballots cast inside the nation showed law professor Rajko Kuzmanovic of the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) firmly ahead of his main rivals for the mainly ceremonial post.

Stjepan Mikic, head of Bosnia's election commission, told reporters it was unlikely that some 20,000 ballots yet to be counted, including absentee, postal and unconfirmed votes, would change the result of the election in which 10 candidates competed.

The vote was organized after the death of President Milan Jelic in September.

Ognjen Tadic of the nationalist Serb Democratic Party (SDS) followed Kuzmanovic with 35 percent of the vote, while Bosnia's ex-foreign minister Mladen Ivanic of the Party of Democratic Progress (PDP) polled 17 percent.

Analysts have said the poll was a test of support for Dodik rather than for Kuzmanovic, who is 76 and new to politics.

"The election demonstrated that the SNSD is the most powerful and most organized party," Dodik said on Monday.

He expressed hope that Kuzmanovic's victory would bring about full political stabilization of the Serb Republic.

Turnout was low at about 37 percent of the 1.1 million electorate. Market researchers say this was because of a lack of popular trust in politicians.

The Serb Republic is one of two autonomous regions that make up Bosnia under the 1995 Dayton peace accords that ended the 1992-95 war. The Muslim-Croat federation is the other half.

The region's president does not have decision-making powers but no law can be passed without presidential approval. The winner is elected after one round of voting by a simple majority.

(Reporting by Maja Zuvela; Editing by Janet Lawrence)