Polling stations setting up ahead of Sunday's general election
63 views · Published 11 October 2018 · 4:41 · Indexed 22 September 2026
Channel: AP Archive · 2018 · News & Politics
(6 Oct 2018) Polling stations in the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, are being prepared for Sunday's general election, in which some 3.3 million voters are being asked to fill the national presidency and other elected positions in the complex network of institutions established in the accords that ended the Bosnian War. The election risks cementing the ethnic divisions of the country's brutal 1992-95 war among Serbs, Croats and Muslims during the breakup of Yugoslavia, which left more than 100,000 people dead and millions homeless. Bosnia today consists of a Serb entity, a Muslim-Croat entity and a central government that holds both together loosely. Voters are choosing the three members of the Bosnian presidency, the president of the Bosnian Serb entity, assembly seats at all levels and cantonal authorities. The results could determine whether Bosnia is strengthened as a unified, multiethnic country or fragments again along ethnic lines. The vote is also seen as a test of whether a place ravaged by ethnic war and unemployment will move closer to European Union and NATO membership or remain mired by historical resentments. Alarmed by mounting Russian influence, the West recently has renewed its push to encourage Balkan nations to solve the disputes stemming from the 1990s breakup of Yugoslavia to be eligible for EU integration. But campaigning in Bosnia has offered little hope of change, with leaders in both the Serb mini-state and the Muslim-Croat part of the country sticking to their divisive rhetoric. The election's main focus has been on Bosnian Serb President Milorad Dodik's bid to win a seat in the multiethnic presidency. Dodik advocates the eventual separation of Serbs from the rest of the country, the same goal that helped fuel the war. Russian President Vladimir Putin has endorsed Dodik, who as a member of the presidency would likely strengthen Russia's role in Bosnia and undermine the country's already fragile multiethnic institutions. The country with a population of 3.5 million remains politically and economically stuck. More than one-third of its people are unemployed, and the lack of jobs has sent tens of thousands of young Bosnians elsewhere to look for work since the last election in 2014. With EU membership nowhere near and the bloc experiencing discord of its own anyway, many Balkan countries have seen a rise in nationalist sentiment and efforts by Russia, Turkey and China to expand their influence in the region. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/ You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/cf7ee9ff0f567c13d02149bb6d675b3a
