Setback for Muslim nationalist forces in elections in Bosnia

According to the partial results, the 46-year-old Becirovic, who was at the head of an alliance of eleven opposition parties, got 56 percent of the votes, Izetbegovic got 39 percent.

Setback for Muslim nationalist forces in elections in Bosnia

According to the partial results, the 46-year-old Becirovic, who was at the head of an alliance of eleven opposition parties, got 56 percent of the votes, Izetbegovic got 39 percent. Izetbegovic, son of the first post-independence Bosnian president, is the head of the SDA. In the past few decades, the party has played a key role in shaping politics in the country, which continues to be torn apart by ethnic conflicts.

History professor Becirovic is committed to a "pro-European and united" Bosnia and Herzegovina. "We need a mandate for development, progress and cooperation, which is what all peoples and nations in Bosnia and Herzegovina need," Becirovic said in his victory speech.

Zeljko Komsic secured the seat of the Croatians in the state presidency again, who will thus begin his fourth term in the body. As expected, the Serbian seat in the state presidency was won by Zeljka Cvijanovic. She is a longtime ally of Serbian nationalist hardliner Milorad Dodik, who previously held that seat in the trio presidency.

Dodik has been the leader of the Bosnian Serbs for more than 15 years. The 63-year-old - a confidant of Kremlin boss Vladimir Putin - ran this time for the presidency of the Serbian republic, which he had already held twice. According to the electoral commission, Dodik was able to win this election.

Accordingly, after counting 82 percent of the votes in the Republic of Srpska, Dodik was at 49 percent, his - also nationalist - rival Jelena Trivic at 42 percent. The economics professor had previously announced her victory, but later she questioned the figures published by the election commission and spoke of electoral fraud.

The elections were as complicated as the country itself. At the level of the state institutions, the electorate determined not only the three-member presidency but also the members of the central parliament. Regional parliamentarians in the two republics were also elected, as well as the members of the assemblies of the ten cantons that make up the Muslim-Croatian federation.

The country's complex and ineffective political system is based on the 1995 Dayton Agreement, which ended the Bosnian war of the 1990s, which killed 100,000 people. Since 1995, the UN Security Council has also appointed a High Representative who oversees the implementation of the Dayton Agreement. The German Christian Schmidt currently holds the office.

Moments after polling stations closed on Sunday, Schmidt announced a series of voting law changes. The aim is to "improve the functioning of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and ensure the timely implementation of the results of the October 2022 elections," he said.

The High Representative has the power to intervene in legislation and remove elected politicians. The office was originally scheduled to expire in 2007, but the mandate was extended due to political instability.

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