By Branko filipovic
SARAJEVO/BANJA LUKA, Oct 4 (Reuters) – Bosnians vote on Sunday in elections that could affect their European Union membership bid and the influence that the United States and Russia seek over the small Balkan nation.
Voters are casting ballots for the country’s central tripartite presidency and national parliament, alongside regional legislative races in its two federal entities.
Voter frustration has grown over an economic slowdown, the slow pace of EU entry talks and a lingering political crisis in which the ethnically based dominant parties from the two entities have repeatedly stalled decisions by the weak central government that links them.
Bosnia, which has struggled to recover from the bloody 1992-95 war, secured EU candidate status in December 2022 and the green light to open accession negotiations in 2024. Actual talks have not started because domestic political leaders have yet to enact core requirements such as bolstering judicial oversight and passing anti-corruption laws.
Preliminary results are expected to be released by the Central Election Commission after polls close at 7 p.m. (1700 GMT) on Sunday.
The Bosnian war ended in 1995 with the US-brokered Dayton peace accord, which left the country split along ethnic lines into the Serb-dominated Republika Srpska and the Bosniak-Croat Federation — linked by the central government and tripartite presidency.
Many voters in the country of 3.4 million people say they want to move beyond the divisive rhetoric, but the politics appears stuck.
Dusan Cvijic, a 76-year-old pensioner from Banja Luka, the largest city of the Republika Srpska, said the government’s policies failed. “What has been done so far has been inadequate. People are struggling; life is very hard. There are ways to improve …, if things are done honestly, to give people a decent life,” Cvijic said.
The vote pits rival ethnic parties — the Bosniak SDA, Serb SNSD and Croat HDZ BiH — against multi-ethnic opposition coalitions led by the Social Democratic Party.
According to tracking platform Poliwave, the SDA holds a narrow national lead with 21.4%, followed by the SDP on 16.7%. In Republika Srpska, SNSD, the party run by secessionist leader Milorad Dodik, who wants close ties with Serbia and Russia, is ahead with 34.2%.
If ethnically based parties prevail and continue their bickering within the central government, which would be the body that would eventually officially join the EU, progress on accession is likely to be stalled further.
In the capital, Sarajevo, Ismar Garasljevic, a 51-year-old high school teacher, said: “More than 30 years after the war, the situation is still the same; we are talking about nationalism … The same faces, the same story, constantly.”
Voters on Sunday will face redesigned ballots alongside new biometric voter identification and electronic scanners introduced to curb voting fraud.
US AND RUSSIAN INFLUENCE
Major powers have long sought influence over Bosnia. The EU is seeking to expand its membership across the Balkans, including Bosnia, but Russia is slowing it down, maintaining its support of the Republika Srpska.
The US has also sought to gain influence and wants to push for a $1.5 billion pipeline project to import US liquefied natural gas, run by a company with links to the Trump administration, but the EU warned that the company selection lacked competitive transparency.
Washington has also clashed with Brussels over the role of the international High Representative, who, under provisions of the Dayton accord, enforces the laws. Christian Schmidt, a former German government minister, resigned in May under pressure from the US.
(Writing by Aleksandar Vasovic; reporting by Branko Filipovic in Sarajevo and Fedja Grulovic in Banja Luka; Editing by Alison Williams and David Goodman)
