Status: 03.10.2022 03:23
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, for the first time in twelve years, no politician from the Muslim nationalist SDA party could be represented in the state presidency. The non-nationalist reformer Komsic is likely to keep the Croatian seat.
According to local media reports, some nationalist candidates have suffered losses in the elections for the three-member state presidency in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Moderate Bosniak Social Democrat Denis Becirevic (SPD) is leading the race for a seat on Bosnia’s tripartite inter-ethnic presidium, preliminary results have shown. For the first time in twelve years, no SDA politician would be represented in the state presidency.
Becirevic, who was supported by 11 opposition parties, received 55.78 percent of the vote, ahead of Bakir Izetbegovic, whose nationalist Bosniak Democratic Action Party (SDA) has been in power since the end of the war in 1996. Izetbegovic, who, according to the electoral commission, received 39.31 percent of the votes, admitted his defeat that night.
Serbian seat for nationalists
According to the partial results, the current incumbent, the non-nationalist reformer Zeljko Komsic, may have prevailed in the race for the Croatian seat.
The Serbian seat, on the other hand, is likely to remain in the hands of nationalists. The candidate of the SNSD, which governs the Serbian part of the country, Zeljka Cvijanovic, is said to have won 60 percent of the votes. She is a confidant of the Serbian separatist Milorad Dodik, who previously held the Serbian seat in the state presidency. This time he ran for the presidency of the Serbian part of the country and was reportedly ahead.
Worst political crisis since the end of the war
Against the background of the worst political crisis since the end of the war, the almost 3.4 million voters decided, among other things, on presidencies and members of parliament at the national, regional and municipal levels of the complex state structure. The country consists of the Republic of Srpska, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Brcko District.