Bosnian Elections Deepen Ethnic Divides
Milorad Dodik was brought to power in the Bosnian presidential elections amongst others.
The October 7 Bosnian presidential elections brought Milorad Dodik to power, a Serb nationalist with close ties to Russia, representing the Republika Srpska entity. Alongside Dodik, serving as tripartite heads of state, will be Zeljko Komsic, the Croat president-elect, and Bosniak president-elect Sefik Dzaferovic.
Accounts of election fraud or power consolidation are few and far between; rather, the undeniable crisis facing Bosnia is one of ethnic polarization stirred up by divisive campaigns between the three entities’ candidates. These campaigns were fueled by a “very poisonous atmosphere” of “fear-based rhetoric” and nationalist fervor, according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
President-elect Dodik claimed during his campaign that Bosnian Serbs are “forced” to live with groups with whom they historically disagree, and that the sole solution is to “strengthen the Serb political and national identity.”
Currently, Bosnia-Herzegovina’s government functions according to the 1995 Dayton Peace Accords, which split power amongst the three nations. While these accords ended years of post-Yugoslav conflict from militant separatist Serbs and fighting between groups of Muslim Bosniaks and Catholic Croats, they failed to dissolve the ethnic divisions in the country, instead cementing them in place through a complex system of collective governance.
Dissatisfied with this system, former Croat President Dragan Covic held up electoral proceedings earlier this May; he claimed that Croats, who are the minority population in the Bosniak-Croat Federation entity, deserve a separate third entity dedicated to Bosnian Croats. This movement, which would only further chip away Bosnian coherency, was rejected by Bosniak legislators.
The elections were not free of international tensions either. Dodik, a known friend of Vladimir Putin, frequently visits Russia. He pledged to a Russian newspaper that he will oppose any bid for NATO membership offered during his presidency, heralding state-level policy divisions. Furthermore, the Republika Srpska parliament issued a resolution supporting Bosnian neutrality in military alliances.
In the wake of these foreseen divisions and divisive rhetoric, the European Union has called on the new leaders of Bosnia and Herzegovina to aid in establishing effective governments throughout both Federations “by working constructively together, in the interest of the citizens of their country.”