With more than 50% of the votes counted, and according to the evaluations of the parties themselves, the complex elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina last night pointed to the victory, somewhat against the odds, of the reformist parties, at least in what corresponds to the entity Bosnian and Croatian. The exception was in the Bosnian Serb territory or Republika Srpska, where the separatist orientation embodied by its leader and member of the country's tripartite presidency, Milorad Dodik, remains.
Participation was 50%, about four points less than in the 2018 elections. Some 3.4 million voters were called to the polls to elect the three members of the collegiate presidency and the deputies of the central Parliament. the parliaments of the two autonomous entities that make up the state of Bosnia-Herzegovina – the Republika Srspka and the Common Federation of Muslims and Croats – the Presidency of the Republika Srpska and the assemblies of the ten cantons that make up the Federation. In total, more than 7,250 candidates from 72 parties and 30 coalitions competed.
The elections were held amid deep ethnic divisions between the three constituent peoples of the country, which faces Bosnian Serb secessionist tendencies and an escalation of discord between Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats.
On the Bosnian side, the reformist Denis Becirovic, backed by eleven civic formations, prevailed this time over Bakir Izetbégovic. Among the Croats, Zeliko Komsic aimed to repeat for the fourth time, although under threat from the nationalists, who had warned that they would impose a blockade.
It was in this regard that, very shortly after the closing of the polling stations, the International High Representative in Bosnia-Herzegovina imposed changes in the electoral law aimed at avoiding blockades. Former German politician Christian Schmidt, who has sweeping powers, weighed in to say in a YouTube message to the public that "it is crucial for the fate of this country that there are no lockdowns." Other changes include a deadline for government formation after an election, as well as measures to ensure the functionality of the parliament of the autonomous Bosnian-Croat federation.
Christian Schmidt has the mission of guaranteeing the peace agreements after the 1992-95 war and has imposed changes in the country's Constitution, in its constitutional court and in the judiciary. The High Representative has been frequently and intensely reviled by the Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik, considering that he has too much power and that he exercises an almost colonial tutelage over Bosnia, which gives him arguments for a secession. Dodik, an ally of Vladimir Putin, promotes the separation of the Republika Srpska. The one that is emerging as his chosen successor, Zeljka Cvijanovic, seemed to prevail over the economist Jelena Trivic and the also opponent Mirko Sarovic.
