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SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (CNN) -- In their final pronouncements before this weekend's Bosnian elections, leaders of the country's three ethnic groups issued tough statements backing their own communities, dashing Western hopes of a spirit of reconciliation.

A flag-waving, chanting crowd filled the central square of Banja Luka on Thursday night, cheering Bosnian Serb nationalist leaders in a show of strength.

The crowd, estimated at more than 15,000 people, was far larger and louder than the one that attended an election rally at the same square Tuesday for moderate Bosnian Serb leader Biljana Plavsic and her coalition partners.

If the rallies reflect Bosnian Serb sentiments in the voting Saturday and Sunday, it could mean a serious setback for efforts by the international community to bring down the nationalist leaders who share the blame for starting Bosnia's civil war.

But Carlos Westendorp, the Spanish diplomat overseeing the peace process in Bosnia, said this week he was confident that moderates would gain in the two-day presidential and parliamentary elections.

Sectional interests

Robert Barry, the international official supervising the elections, backed that view, saying he believed that Bosnian voters would send their politicians the message "that they are tired of all this nationalist posturing."

But Croat, Muslim and Serb leaders -- even those who accept the Dayton Accords that ended the 1992-95 war -- made clear that their main concern was still to defend their sectional interests.

"We will be strong in protecting the rights of all citizens -- and especially the protection of Croat interests," said Ante Jelavic of the dominant Bosnian Croat party HDZ. He is the main challenger for the Croat seat on the three-man co-presidency.

Referring to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which is supervising the elections and which has already banned 15 HDZ candidates for unfair electoral tactics, he said, "Despite the OSCE measures, we will ensure our victory ... which will mean an honorable and civilized future for Croats in Bosnia-Herzegovina."

Momcilo Krajisnik, a hard-liner who holds the Serb seat on the presidency, drew rapturous applause from the crowd at the Banja Luka rally when he called it "the most Serbian town in the whole Serb ethnic area."

"We call for Serb unity, but not a false unity with other people against the Serbs," he said, using the Serbian word for unity -- "sloga" -- which is the name of the coalition challenging his SDS party.

Western envoys are reluctant to deal with Krajisnik, believing he does not accept the Dayton Accords which set up a Croat-Moslem federation and a Serb Republic within Bosnia's national boundaries.

"People say I am anti-Dayton while (the other ethnic leaders) are for it. But they are working for a multi-ethnic Bosnia, and I want the Serb republic to survive. We don't want the spirit of Dayton, we want the letter of Dayton. Dayton gave us a state and we are not giving it away," said Krajisnik.

Defending accusations

Moderate Bosnian Serb Prime Minister Milorad Dodik, interviewed in a Yugoslav newspaper, forecast that the Sloga coalition, of which his own Social Democrats are a part, would win 50 percent of the votes in Serb Republic. He predicted that incumbent President Plavsic would retain her post.

Dodik

But he found it necessary to fend off Krajisnik's accusation that his government is too moderate and is selling out the Bosnian Serbs.

"I would like to underline that no incorporation of the Serb Republic into Bosnia is taking place and that the Serb Republic with its current government represents the best defense against the creation of a unitary Bosnia," he said.

Muslim war leader and co-President Alija Izetbegovic has no serious challenger to his leadership. His SDA party leads a four-party coalition whose poster, showing 27 of its leading figures, is plastered across Sarajevo.

In an ironic tribute to his dominance, the city's news magazine Dani on Thursday printed the poster on its cover with the faces of all 27 of them -- men and women -- changed to that of Izetbegovic.

But even Izetbegovic said it was his SDA party, and not the Croat HDZ or Serb SDS, that had "pushed Dayton forward, while they were obstructing it."

"It is obvious, through their behavior in the war and the implementation of the peace, that the SDS, HDZ and SDA are completely different," he added in a radio interview.

Thursday night's rallies and statements brought the campaign to a close, as the OSCE-imposed rules demand a blackout on political campaigning in the 24 hours before the polls open at 7 a.m. (0600 GMT) Saturday.

Reuters contributed to this report.