Bosnia general elections: preliminary results show turnout drop and incumbent claims

The former president of Bosnia's Serb statelet, Milorad Dodik, said his party had retained power in the entity and its seat on the shared presidency, as preliminary results showed a drop in turnout for Bosnia's general elections.

Dodik led the declarations for a dizzying number of posts to be decided in the general elections in a complex system that has held the partitioned Balkan country together since the 1995 peace deal.

The key race was for the tripartite presidency, split between Bosnian Muslims or Bosniaks, and the Serb and Croat ethnic groups. Dodik's Serb nationalists ran on a platform of greater autonomy and secessionist rhetoric.

"If it had not been for Donald Trump's magnificent victory ... we would probably be political corpses today," he told supporters in Banja Luka, in a speech that also thanked his close ally, Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"But now, thanks to the new environment, we are political winners," he added.

The 67-year-old was not on the ballot after being convicted of overstepping his powers and banned from the presidency for six years.

But he remains a central figure in the Bosnian Serb Republika Srpska entity.

With 95 percent of the ballots counted, according to electoral officials, his candidate, Zeljka Cvijanovic, was firmly on track to retain her spot in the presidency. Meanwhile, Bosniak presidential incumbent Denis Becirovic also claimed victory after results showed him leading a tighter race for his seat.

"A freedom-loving, anti-fascist and civic Bosnia and Herzegovina is alive," Becirovic, from the Social Democrats party, told supporters in Sarajevo.

Bosnian Croat nationalist candidate Darijana Filipovic also claimed victory in her bid for the Croat presidential seat.

Dodik's party was also projected to retain power in the Serb entity's parliament and local presidency by a large margin.

The US-brokered Dayton agreement ended the 1992-1995 conflict but entrenched divisions that often paralyze decision-making.

It divided Bosnia into two semi-autonomous entities -- the Serb-run RS and a Muslim-Croat federation -- linked by a weak central government.

The major parties' repeated focus on war-era rhetoric of ethnic division frustrated some voters, who hoped for candidates to address economic concerns in one of Europe's poorest countries.

Economist Merima Cerim Karisik, voting in a northern Sarajevo suburb, told Agence France-Presse she hoped for change and a turn away from the tired politics of the past.

"That what we have seen over the past 30 years will finally come to an end," she said.

Amela Hadzic, after casting her ballot at the same polling station, said it felt like the country had gone backward recently.

"I hope people have seen that things cannot go on like this. I doubt there will be any major changes, but hopefully things will at least get better, however little," Hadzic said.

With the debut of biometric identification and the scanning of paper ballots at thousands of polling stations, authorities said technical issues had caused voting to be extended at some stations, but there were no reports of major incidents.

Turnout dropped nearly 10 percentage points from the last election in 2022, to around 42 percent, according to official figures.

In the Muslim-Croat federation, Becirovic advocates a path toward the European Union and NATO.

But if Dodik's party returns to the presidency, it would almost certainly mean the political deadlock that has blocked the necessary reforms for years would remain.

After two decades in power, Dodik and his party have repeatedly clashed with the country's central authorities and vocally oppose EU membership.

Croat nationalist parties are also pushing for electoral reform. They want a greater say in choosing the Croat member of the presidency in the entity they share with the more numerous Bosniaks.