Dodik announces victory for his party in Bosnian elections

Former Bosnian Serb President Milorad Dodik announced the victory of his SNSD party in the elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina. "I declare that we have won," Dodik told supporters in Banja Luka, the capital of Republika Srpska. His party won both in the republic and the Serbian seat of the three-member state presidency of the central state.

According to the electoral authorities, 95 percent of the votes have been counted so far. The electoral authorities had previously published the first partial results. According to official information, voter turnout was around 42 percent, almost ten percentage points lower than in the previous election in 2022.

Thanks to Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin

The SNSD candidate Savo Minić clearly won the election for president of the Serbian part of the Republic of Srpska. In the Serbian parliament, the SNSD remains the dominant force with 39 percent of the vote. Dodik said in the evening that the League of Independent Social Democrats would achieve a clear majority in the Serbian-dominated Republika Srpska.

In a speech, Dodik thanked US President Donald Trump. "If it hadn't been for Donald Trump's great victory, we would probably be political corpses today," he said, also thanking his close ally, Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Dodik was removed as president of the republic last year because he had exceeded his authority. He is not allowed to run for office again for six years.

Nationalist forces dominate the state presidency

The Bosniak Denis Bećirović and the Serbian Željka Cvijanović were again elected to the three-person state presidency. The only new member is the Croatian member Darijana Filipović.

The Social Democrat Bećirović prevailed in the race for the Bosniak seat with 38.1 percent of the vote against the head of the Muslim nationalist SDA party, Bakir Izetbegović. The Serb Cvijanović, who belongs to the nationalist ruling party SNSD in the Serbian part of the country, clearly won with 55.6 percent of the vote against her challenger from the moderately nationalist SDS.

With the election of Croatian Filipović, who belongs to the HDZ BiH party, a Croatian nationalist has moved into the highest state body. She won the Croatian seat with 48.2 percent of the vote.

Around 3.4 million eligible voters nationwide were called upon to redefine the central parliament and the regional parliaments of the Serbian state and the Croatian-Muslim Federation. They also elected the presidents of the two republics and the three-member state presidency of the central state. The presidency is held by a Croat, a Bosniak and a Serb.

Formation of a government is traditionally a lengthy process

The results of the election allow little conclusions to be drawn about the future government due to the complex constitutional system and the coalition negotiations, which usually last for months. The Balkan state's complex political system emerged from the Dayton Accords of 1995, which ended the civil war of the 1990s that left 100,000 dead.