ZAGREB, October 8, 2018 – Democratic Front (DF) candidate Željko Komšić, Democratic Action Party (SDA) candidate Šefik Džaferović and Bosnian Serb nationalist leader Milorad Dodik have won seats on Bosnia-Herzegovina’s three-person presidency, election officials said Monday.
The State Election Commission confirmed that the three candidates received a majority of votes in the election of the state presidency – the main Bosniak party said its candidate, Šefik Džaferović, will be the Muslim representative in the presidency, Croat voters returned Željko Komšić to their presidential seat, and Serb voters decided to have Milorad Dodik as the representative of the Bosnian Serbs.
Bosnia is split into two entities: the ethnic Serb-dominated Republika Srpska and the Muslim-Croat Federation of Bosniaks and Croats. The two entities are linked by joint state-level institutions, including a tripartite presidency.
Turnout was 53.36 percent of the country’s 3.3 million eligible voters, election officials said.
Komšić, a Social Democrat who has served two terms in the presidency, was leading with 49.5 percent of the vote over Dragan Čović from the largest Croat HDZ party. Čović, who had 38 percent, conceded defeat but warned of a “never-seen-before” crisis in the country.
Komšić sought to reassure all voters, saying, “I will serve all citizens, even if they didn’t vote for me.”
On Friday, Komšić criticised Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković for coming to Mostar to give his support to Čović, saying that officials from Serbia and Croatia were barging in Bosnia’s territory like bandits and meddling into Bosnia’s election process.
Nearly 7,500 candidates, including 34 independents, from 58 political parties, coalitions were running for positions in a new state parliament, assemblies in the two entities, ten cantonal assemblies within one of the entities – the mainly Bosniak and Croat Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina – the presidency of the Bosnian Serb entity of Republika Srpska, and the three-member state presidency.
A total of 518 positions were up for election. Three are seats on the state presidency, 42 were for the state parliament, 98 were for the assembly of the Federation entity, 83 were for the assembly of the Republika Srpska and three were for the president and vice-presidents of Republika Srpska.
In Republika Srpska voters had to elect MPs, a president and two vice-presidents. In the Muslim-Croat Federation a bicameral parliament has to be elected that includes a president and two vice-presidents.
Approximately 6,500 national and international observers are overseeing the voting. Political parties taking part in the election sent as many as 60,000 of their own observers.
The Election Commission on Monday announced preliminary results of the parliamentary election, based on data collected from 60 percent of the poling stations in the Federation of BiH, according to which the strongest party in the entity, the SDA won the election, as did its candidate Džaferović in the race for a seat on the presidency.
The SDA won 25 percent of the vote, followed by the coalition gathered around the Croatian Democratic Union of BiH with just under 19 percent of the vote. Komšić’s Democratic Forum won approximately 14 percent of the vote. The parliamentary results will be announced later on Monday.
Election monitors said no major incidents were reported.
