- Title: Bosnians say election results mean more of the same
- Date: 8th October 2018
- Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Serbian) RESIDENT OF BANJA LUKA, MIRJANA STRAHINJIC, SAYING: "The agony continues. There's no prosperity here, until further notice." (REPORTER ASKING "SO YOU DON'T EXPECT ANYTHING TO CHANGE NOW?") "Absolutely nothing. It may even be worse." (SOUNDBITE) (Serbian) RESIDENT OF BANJA LUKA, DUSAN, SAYING: "My comment to all this is that these elections haven't been fair. And all of this has been rigged. As they say, it's injustice." (SOUNDBITE) (Serbian) RESIDENT OF BANJA LUKA, BOBAN GVOZDENOVIC, SAYING: "Well, everything is well known, the citizens voted to show how unhappy they are, but the state of affairs remained unchanged." (REPORTER ASKING "WHAT HAPPENS NEXT, WHAT DO YOU EXPECT?") "Nothing, I'm actually on my way to the Slovenian embassy, to take out my visa, and then, I don't know, we'll see." (SOUNDBITE) (Serbian) RESIDENT OF BANJA LUKA, SRDJAN PRELEVIC, SAYING: "Well, just more of the same. Neither better nor worse, just moving on in a straight line."
- Embargoed: 22nd October 2018 10:11
- Keywords: Bosnia general election
- Location: SARAJEVO, BANJA LUKA; BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA
- City: SARAJEVO, BANJA LUKA; BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA
- Country: Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Topics: Government/Politics,Elections/Voting
- Reuters ID: LVA00B917H8HZ
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Bosnians were left underwhelmed on Monday (October 8) with the preliminary results of the general elections, which saw Serb nationalist leader Milorad Dodik and Sefik Dzaferovic, the candidate of the largest Muslim Bosniak party, winning the Serb and Bosniak seats in Bosnia's triumvirate presidency.
The third seat was won by moderate Croat Zeljko Komsic, who had already served two terms in the presidency from 2006 to 2014, beating nationalist Dragan Covic from the largest Croat party, HDZ.
Around 1.7 million voters took part in the presidential and parliamentary elections, voting for members of Bosnia's tripartite inter-ethnic presidency, consisting of a Bosniak, a Croat and a Serb, as well as lawmakers for parliament's lower house.
They also voted for leaders and assemblies of its two sub-national autonomous regions - the Serb Republic, and the Bosniak-Croat Federation, and of the federation's 10 cantons.
The ballot was seen a test for Bosnia to determine whether it will progress towards European Union membership and NATO integration, or remain held back by ethnic rivalries.
More than two decades after a war in which 100,000 died, leading Serb, Croat and Muslim Bosniak parties campaigned on nationalist platforms, while failing to offer any clear economic or political visions.
Dzaferovic was a candidate of SDA, the party that has historically dominated Bosniak vote, and will succeed the leader of the party Bakir Izetbegovic, who held the post of Bosniak member of presidency since 2010.
Dodik, a pro-Russian leader who has repeatedly advocated secession of the Serb Republic and integration with Serbia, earlier proclaimed victory in his party stronghold in the northern town of Banja Luka.
Analysts believe that he will work to weaken the presidency.
Meanwhile, Covic said he garnered the majority of ethnic Croat votes and that Komsic won only due to Bosniak votes.
Croat nationalist parties have argued for the creation of new ethnically based election units in which Croats would vote only for their ethnic candidate.
Analysts say that there is now a realistic possibility that the formation of the Federation parliament's upper house may be blocked after the Bosniak and Croat parties failed to agree on how to change the election law before the vote.
The election commission will announce preliminary results of the parliamentary vote later on Monday. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2018. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None