Voters in Republika Srpska, the Serb-majority entity of Bosnia
and Herzegovina, headed to the polls on Sunday for a snap
presidential election.
Polling stations opened at 7 a.m. local time (0600 GMT) across
2,211 locations both within Republika Srpska and abroad. Voting
will run until 7 p.m. (1800 GMT). According to Bosnia’s election
commission, more than one million citizens are registered to vote.
The first preliminary results are expected before midnight,
according to the Anadolu Agency.
Six candidates on the ballot
The Central Election Commission confirmed that six contenders
are competing for the presidency following the removal of Milorad
Dodik from office.
The frontrunner, according to analysts, is Sinisa Karan — the
minister for science, technology and higher education — who enjoys
the backing of Dodik’s Union of Independent Social Democrats
(SNSD).
He is joined on the ballot by Dragan Djokanovic of the New
Policy Union, Branko Blanusa of the Serbian Democratic Party,
Nikola Lazarevic of the Ecological Party of Republika Srpska, and
two independent candidates, Igor Gasevic and Slavko Dragicevic.
Background to the snap vote
The election was triggered after months of political crisis
centred on Milorad Dodik, known for his separatist rhetoric and
repeated challenges to Bosnia’s constitutional order.
Dodik openly refused to recognise the Office of the High
Representative (OHR) — created under the Dayton Peace Agreement —
and rejected the authority of the current High Representative,
Christian Schmidt.
In June 2023, under Dodik’s leadership, the Republika Srpska
National Assembly voted to stop publishing Schmidt’s decisions in
its Official Gazette. Schmidt annulled those moves, invoking his
powers to block legislation seen as threatening the state’s
integrity.
Dodik doubled down on his claims that Republika Srpska would
eventually “secede from Bosnia and Herzegovina.” Prosecutors
charged him with failing to comply with OHR decisions, seeking a
prison term. In December 2023, he received a one-year prison
sentence and a six-year ban from political office, later converted
into a fine.
Bosnia’s Central Election Commission subsequently voted
unanimously to remove him from the presidency, paving the way for
the current snap election.