Europe · updated 1h ago · 2 min read
Milorad Dodik Declares Victory in Bosnia Vote, Credits Trump and Putin
Dodik declares victory for his party in the Bosnian Serb entity amid general election. Dodik thanks Trump and Putin after declaring victory.
Whether to foreground fraud allegations or election results.
11 of 12 outlets skipped it: dodik alleges election process was stolen and calls new devices a racket.
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France 24
“according to electoral officials, his candidate, Zeljka Cvijanovic, was firmly on track”Read the original ↗
France 24 and RFE/RL emphasise election winners while srpske.rs spotlights theft allegations and device fraud claims.
Dodik’s victory claim
Milorad Dodik declared victory in Bosnia and Herzegovina elections after supporters gathered in Banja Luka, and he said, "I declare that we have won," to backers.
Dodik credited U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin for enabling his win, and he told supporters, "If it hadn’t been for Donald Trump’s great victory, today we would probably be political corpses."
Dodik urged Serb turnout against "Sarajevo crooks" as Bosnians headed to the polls, saying, "If we don’t go and vote, then we are playing into the hands of those crooks in Sarajevo,".
About 3.4 million voters were invited to choose officials within Bosnia’s power-sharing system, and turnout was 41.48%, about 10 percentage points lower than the general elections held on October 2, 2022.
Votes, seats, and turnout
Bosnia’s election authorities counted 95 percent of the votes, and DIE WELT said Dodik’s party won both in the entity and the Serbian seat of the tripartite state presidency. AP said nearly 90% of votes were counted when Dodik’s ally Zeljka Cvijanovic had more than 55% of votes to take one of the three seats in the country’s tripartite presidency, leading her nearest opponent by around 30 percentage points.
AP also said Bosnia’s Central Election Commission reported 1,432,269 votes were cast for a turnout of 42%, down by around 8% from Bosnia’s last election in 2022. Euronews said polls closed on Sunday with preliminary results unclear, and it reported that Bosnia’s Election Commission prolonged the 7 p.m. voting cutoff at polling stations that experienced problems.
EU hopes and political deadlock
France 24 said Dodik’s Serb nationalists ran on a platform of greater autonomy and secessionist rhetoric, and it reported that the 67-year-old was not on the ballot after being convicted of overstepping his powers and banned from the presidency for six years. FBosnia formally sought European Union membership, and progress had stalled despite EU efforts to push leaders toward reform.
Dodik’s party returns to the presidency would almost certainly mean the political deadlock that has blocked necessary reforms for years would remain. Al-Jazeera Net said the elections were overshadowed by economic pressures, the possible accession of the Balkan country to the European Union, and ethnic tensions divided since the 1992 to 1995 war.