Elections in Bosnia-Herzegovina: Nationalists suffer losses

The nationalists in Bosnia-Herzegovina are in danger of losing one of their two seats in the state presidency to the social democrats.

Among other things, Bosnia-Herzegovina elected a new state presidency on Sunday: So far, 61 percent of the votes have been counted.

Armin Durgut / AP

(dpa) According to local media reports, in the elections for the three-member state presidency in Bosnia-Herzegovina, some nationalist candidates were losing.

After counting 61 percent of the votes, the Social Democrat Denis Becirovic led the race for the Bosniak seat in the state presidency with 55 percent of the votes ahead of the leader of the Muslim nationalist SDA party, Bakir Izetbegovic, with 41 percent. The reports were based on information from the party headquarters, which had the partial results. Official results were not expected until Monday.

Becirovic’s victory would mean that for the first time in twelve years no SDA politician would be represented in the state presidency.

In the race for the Croatian seat, the previous incumbent, the non-nationalist reformer Zeljko Komsic, is likely to have prevailed, according to the partial results. He is said to have accounted for 67 percent of the votes.

Parliament will also be renewed

The Serbian seat, on the other hand, is likely to remain in the hands of nationalists. The candidate of the SNSD, which governs the Serbian part of the country, Zeljka Cvijanovic, is said to have won 60 percent of the votes. She is a confidant of the Serbian separatist Milorad Dodik, who previously held the Serbian seat in the state presidency. This time he ran for the post of president in the Serbian part of the country and was reportedly ahead.

In addition to the state presidency, the citizens of Bosnia also elected the federal parliament, the parliaments in the two largely independent parts of the country, the presidency in the Serbian Republic (RS) and the cantonal administrations in the Bosnian-Croatian Federation (FBiH).

source site-111