Bosnians voted in a general election where campaigns remained heavily dominated by ethnic divisions stemming from the 1990s war.
SARAJEVO: Bosnians cast ballots on Sunday in a general election whose campaign was dominated by parties that identify closely with the ethnic divisions of its 1990s war.
Voters will elect a dizzying number of officials across multiple tiers of government, in a complex system that has held the partitioned country together since the 1995 peace deal.
Its key race will be for the tripartite presidency, split between Bosnian Muslims or Bosniaks, and the Serb and Croat ethnic groups, with frontrunners pitting visions of a united country against greater autonomy for the Serb-run entity while Croats seek greater political representation.
But the major parties’ repeated focus on war-era rhetoric and division was frustrating for some voters, hoping instead for change and for attention on the economy to ensure better wages, more jobs and to persuade youngsters not to emigrate from the country of 3.5 million people.
“The situation in the country is not ideal, we could move forward in every sense of the word,” said Drazen Gvozdenovic after casting his ballot in Laktasi, in northern Bosnia.
The 40-year-old accordion instructor would like to see “improvements, particularly in wages and employment, so that people can live in peace without needing to worry about meeting their basic needs”.
Economist Merima Cerim Karisik, from the Sarajevo suburb of Vogosca, echoed the view, voicing hope that a new generation of politicians would get their first opportunity to “drive change … (and) that what we have seen over the past 30 years will finally come to an end”.
The US-brokered Dayton agreement ended the 1992-1995 conflict but entrenched divisions that often paralyse decision-making.
It divided Bosnia into two semi-autonomous entities — the Serb-run Republika Srpska (RS) and a Muslim-Croat federation — linked by a weak central government.
Serb strongman’s grip tested
RS former president and central figure Milorad Dodik, whose face beams out on campaign posters and billboards in the entity’s capital Banja Luka, on Sunday called on Serbs to turn out in large numbers saying he expects an “extraordinary” result for his camp.
“If we don’t go and vote, then we are playing into the hands of those crooks in Sarajevo who are trying to fix everything in order to build a unitary Bosnia and destroy Republika Srpska,” he said after voting in Laktasi.
Dodik, 67, himself is not on the ballot after being convicted for overstepping his powers and banned from the presidency for six years.
His regular separatist threats have led to repeated clashes with the central authorities and stymied hopes of political cooperation.
But despite Dodik’s two decades of dominance in RS, researcher Adnan Cerimagic from the European Stability Initiative (ESI) told AFP that it was “not impossible” for opposition candidate Branko Blanusa to beat Dodik-backed Savo Minic in the race for RS presidency.
‘No progress’ –
In the Muslim-Croat federation, Bosniak parties are pushing for a stronger central state, with incumbent Bosniak presidency member Denis Becirovic pledging a renewed path to the European Union and NATO.
But Cerimagic said little had changed on that front in years.
“The ruling coalition at state level has made practically no positive progress since 2024, either on reforms or on bringing the country closer to the EU and NATO,” he said.
Croat nationalist parties are also pushing for electoral reform, demanding a greater say in choosing the Croat member of the presidency in the entity they share with the more numerous Bosniaks.
The start of voting was delayed in dozens of polling stations over technical issues, as the country rolled out biometric identification and scanning technology for the first time.
By 0900 GMT, or four hours since the polling stations opened, the turnout was nearly 12 percent, the central electoral commission said. It was around three percentage points lower than turnout at the same time in the 2022 elections.
Polls close at 1700 GMT and first results are expected late Sunday.