Bosnian Serb political leader Milorad Dodik was declared president of the Bosnian Serb entity on Thursday, election officials said after a recount following an opposition foul.
The presidential election of the Republika Srpska (RS, the country’s Serbian entity) was one of several votes held on October 2 at the central level and in the two entities, the RS and the Muslim-Croatian federation that form the republic, took place Balkan country.
Bosnia was ruled by this dysfunctional administrative system created by the 1995 Dayton Accords, which successfully ended the 1990s conflict but largely failed to provide a framework for the country’s political development.
The recount “confirmed that the candidate Milorad Dodik, representing the Serbian people, was and remained at the helm… with the largest number of votes won,” said Suad Arnautovic, chairman of Bosnia’s Central Electoral Commission.
Final numbers for the race were still being compiled, according to officials who said the opposition had only a narrow window to contest their results.
Shortly after the electoral commission’s announcement, Dodik told reporters that “the interests of the RS” would be his priority.
“I call on all political factors to work towards stability and peace, cooperation and understanding. We will need a lot of know-how to be able to understand, all together, the difficult times that are coming,” he said.
But an opposition leader, Branislav Borenovic, announced a legal challenge to the electoral commission’s decision.
“To make such a decision is to turn a blind eye to the obvious electoral looting. If we leave it at that, it means we live in a dark age of democracy… and corruption is the only winner of the elections,” Borenovic was quoted as saying by BNTV.
Hours before the electoral commission announced the result, the US embassy in Bosnia issued a thinly veiled warning to Dodik.
“Any action to disband Bosnia and Herzegovina would violate Dayton and have serious consequences,” the embassy tweeted.
– stir up tensions –
A preliminary post-election count gave Dodik the win – the pro-Kremlin leader garnered 48 percent of the vote versus 43 percent for opposition candidate Jelena Trivic.
However, the day after the election, opposition parties accused Dodik and his party of “organized looting of the elections” and called for a recount.
Thursday’s announcement comes just days after Dodik rallied thousands of supporters in the RS capital of Banja Luka, where the longtime leader of the country’s Serbs remained defiant that he would be victorious.
The recount cements Dodik’s third term as President of the RS after serving a stint in the tripartite presidency.
For years, Dodik has been stoking tensions with frequent calls for Bosnian Serbs to further disengage from the country’s central institutions, earning him fresh sanctions from the United States in January.
Dodik’s rival Trivic – a 39-year-old economics professor – tried to offer RS ??voters an alternative with an anti-corruption ticket while trumpeting Serbs’ desire to maintain autonomy in Bosnia.
In the October elections, the three mainstream ethnic parties scored major victories.
The only exception was the defeat of Bakir Izetbegovic, a two-time member of the country’s tripartite presidency who also heads the main Bosniak party – the SDA.
Izetbegovic was beaten by Denis Becirovic in a double-digit landslide win.
