The reason for the military hesitation is Vietnam. The commanders were afraid of casualties. Despite the miserable conditions for balloting, the U.S. asserts it is better to have a sham vote than no vote at all. You can approach them idealistically, as an exercise in pure democracy. Or you can view them as a building block in a flawed but so far very successful peace process.
Some observers are less optimistic.
For the inhabitants of Bosnia, the Dayton process is fundamentally flawed and a cause for dejection. The elections won't change anything. The Muslim wife of Esad, Kujundzic's victim, also sees little gain from this Saturday's exercise. For four years we have begged for shelter and dug up other people's potatoes. If we can't, we might as well go back to war.