Around 3.4 million voters could choose officials in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s general election on Sunday, including members of its multiethnic, tripartite presidency. They also voted for federal parliament lawmakers and the heads of institutions in the country’s two largely autonomous entities, putting decisions over national and entity-level government in their hands.
Polls closed at 7 p.m. local time, or 1700 GMT. Officials expected preliminary results late Sunday. Voters went to the polls amid economic slowdown, sluggish progress toward European Union membership and prolonged political gridlock.
A state divided across institutions
Bosnia and Herzegovina divides governmental responsibilities among a multiethnic central government, the self-governing neutral Brcko district and two semi-autonomous entities. Those entities, in turn, divide into cantons and communities. The country’s governing framework follows ethnic lines, and the US-brokered 1995 Dayton Peace Accords established it after the 1992-95 Bosnian war and the breakup of Yugoslavia.
Around half of the population are Muslim Bosniaks, while 31% are Orthodox Serb and 15% Catholic Croat. Voters chose representatives for the institutions of the Muslim-Croat Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Serb-run Republika Srpska, as well as for the central government’s presidency and parliament.
Dominant ethnic parties in the two entities have repeatedly stalled decisions by the weak central government. The Bosniak SDA, Serb SNSD and Croat HDZ BiH faced multi-ethnic opposition coalitions led by the Social Democratic Party. Campaigns unfolded amid continuing political divisions. Still, voters said they wanted to move beyond war-era rhetoric and division.
The EU path and political gridlock
Bosnia and Herzegovina has held EU membership candidate status since 2022. Reforms, including stronger judicial oversight and anti-corruption laws, must precede the start of membership talks. Progress toward membership remained sluggish as voters selected representatives for a state whose responsibilities span several levels of government.
In the Muslim-Croat federation, Bosniak parties called for a stronger central state. The SDA focused on keeping the country united against Serb separatism. Bosnian Croats largely supported their ethnic parties, including the Bosnian branch of Croatia’s ruling conservative Croatian Democratic Union. Denis Becirovic, the incumbent Bosniak presidency member, promised a renewed path toward the EU and NATO.
Republika Srpska’s leadership contest
SNSD secessionist leader Milorad Dodik remained influential in Republika Srpska, though he wasn’t on the ballot. Authorities barred the former president of the Serb-majority entity from public office for six years after convicting him of defying the top international envoy overseeing the 1995 peace process. Dodik-backed Savo Minic sought the entity’s presidency.
Dodik seeks close ties with Serbia and Russia and had recently returned from Moscow, where he met Russian President Vladimir Putin. At his final rally in Banja Luka on Friday, Dodik told supporters: “Bosnia and Herzegovina is dead, it is an impossible country.” Political parties contested offices in an election held across a system built around the country’s central government, entities and other levels of administration.