BELGRADE, October 2 – Novosti. General elections have started in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in which the presidium of the country and deputies of parliament will be elected, the Central Electoral Commission said.
Voting takes place on Sunday from 07:00 to 19:00, polling stations opened on time.
The voters of Bosnia and Herzegovina must determine who will take the key positions in the country. These are three members of the presidium and 42 deputies of the BiH parliament. In the Republika Srpska, the president, vice president and 83 deputies of the Assembly are elected, and in the Croatian-Muslim Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina – 98 deputies of the local House of Representatives. In addition, elections to municipal assemblies are held.
Traditionally, Bosniaks vote for the Party of Democratic Action (SDA), Croats for the Croatian Democratic Commonwealth (HDZ), and Bosnian Serbs for one of several Serb parties.
According to the CEC, about 3.4 million citizens have the right to vote. More than 5.9 thousand polling stations have been opened in the country, of which 21 are located in the diplomatic missions of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 15 states. 60,000 observers are watching the voting process.
The main intrigue of the elections is the nomination of the leader of the Union of Independent Social Democrats, a member of the Presidium of BiH from the Serbian people, Milorad Dodik , to the post of head of the Republika Srpska . He is considered the most pro-Russian politician in BiH, has been under Western sanctions for years and openly does not recognize the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina Christian Schmidt, whose appointment in the UN Security Council was not approved by Russia and China.
Dodik’s main competitor was the deputy chairman of the opposition Democratic Progress Party, supported by the Serbian Democratic Party , 39-year-old economics teacher Jelena Trivic. She made criticism of 17 years of SNSD rule, the fight against corruption and the urgent needs of citizens as the basis of her campaign.
Bosnia and Herzegovina announced its secession from Yugoslavia in 1992, after which a war began with the participation of Bosnian Muslims, Serbs and Croats. The exact number of its victims has not been established, but various sources speak of more than one hundred thousand people. The Dayton Agreement signed in 1995 put an end to the war. In accordance with it, three entities were formed – the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Republika Srpska and the Brcko Special District . At the head of the state is a presidium of three people – one representative each from Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims).