Bosnia Votes in Election That Could Shape Its Path to EU Membership

A vote rooted in a 1995 peace deal

Polls opened across Bosnia and Herzegovina on Saturday for a general election that could influence the country's bid to join the European Union. About 3.4 million voters are choosing the three members of the country's multiethnic presidency, national parliament lawmakers, and the heads of institutions for both the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska.

The governing structure itself traces back to the US-brokered Dayton peace deal that ended the 1992-95 war, a system designed to balance power between Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats but one that critics say has calcified ethnic division into the country's politics ever since.

Fatigue with the status quo

Not everyone is convinced the vote will change much. Adi Selman, a 34-year-old activist with the protest group Karton Revolucija, told reporters in Tuzla: "I don't think these new elections in Bosnia will change anything. The choice is limited to political parties that have already been around for 30 years and basically pick up votes by harping on about war, tensions, divisions and the past."

A defiant message from Republika Srpska

The rhetoric from Republika Srpska's political leadership struck a far more combative tone heading into the vote. At his party's final rally in Banja Luka on Friday night, former Republika Srpska president Milorad Dodik told supporters: "Bosnia and Herzegovina is dead; it is an impossible country."

A stalled EU path

The European Union granted Bosnia candidate status back in December 2022, but formal accession talks have been delayed over demands for anticorruption and judicial reforms the country has struggled to meet. Russia has been accused of working to slow Bosnia's path toward the EU while backing Dodik's SNSD party, which favors Republika Srpska's secession from the rest of the country.

New safeguards against fraud

This election marks the first time Bosnia has used biometric fingerprint verification and ballot scanners nationwide, a response to long-standing concerns about electoral fraud. Polls closed at 7pm local time, with the first results expected later Sunday.