Polls closed in Bosnia and Herzegovina on Sunday evening after around 3.4 million eligible voters cast ballots in the country's general election.
Citizens voted for officials across multiple tiers of government, including members of the multiethnic, tripartite presidency. Preliminary results were expected to be released late Sunday, after polls closed at 7 p.m. local time (1700 GMT).
With counting underway, Serb nationalist Zeljka Cvijanovic, Bosniak moderate leftist Denis Becirovic, and Croat nationalist Darijana Filipovic each took an early lead for the presidential seats of their respective ethnicities.
Voters also chose lawmakers for the federal parliament and the heads of institutions for the country's two largely autonomous entities — the Muslim-Croat Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Serb-run Republika Srpska.
Cvijanovic had been backed by Milorad Dodik, the former secessionist leader of Republika Srpska, who is barred from holding public office for six years after being convicted of defying the top international envoy overseeing the 1995 peace process.
Despite not appearing on the ballot, Dodik remained a dominant figure in the election. He claimed victory for his SNSD party on Sunday night, telling supporters in Banja Luka that his party had retained the Serb seat in the presidency and remained in power in Republika Srpska.
"I am declaring that we have won," Dodik told supporters.
At his final campaign rally in Banja Luka on Friday, Dodik had declared: "Bosnia and Herzegovina is dead, it is an impossible country." He has advocated for close ties with Serbia and Russia, and recently returned from Moscow where he met Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Dodik-backed Savo Minic ran for the presidency of Republika Srpska.
The election pitted adversarial ethnic parties — the Bosniak SDA, the Serb SNSD, and the Croat HDZ BiH — against multi-ethnic opposition coalitions led by the Social Democratic Party.
In the Muslim-Croat Federation, Bosniak parties have advocated for a stronger central state. The main Bosniak SDA party has focused on efforts to keep the country united against Serb separatism. Bosnian Croats largely backed their ethnic parties, including the Bosnian branch of Croatia's ruling Croatian Democratic Union.
Incumbent Bosniak presidency member Denis Becirovic vowed a renewed path toward EU and NATO membership.
Bosnia and Herzegovina's political and administrative structure was established under the US-brokered 1995 Dayton Peace Accords, which ended the 1992-95 Bosnian war triggered by the breakup of Yugoslavia. Responsibilities are divided between the multiethnic central government, two semi-autonomous entities, and the self-governing neutral Brcko district. Both entities are further divided into cantons and communities.
The country's population is approximately half Muslim Bosniaks, with around 31 percent Orthodox Serbs and 15 percent Catholic Croats.
The election took place against a backdrop of significant challenges. The country has faced an economic slowdown, sluggish progress toward EU membership, and prolonged political gridlock, with ethnically based dominant parties from the two entities repeatedly stalling decisions by the weak central government.
Bosnia and Herzegovina has held EU candidate status since 2022, but the start of formal membership talks depends on the prior implementation of numerous reforms, including strengthening judicial oversight and passing anti-corruption legislation.
