Sinisa Karan, the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) candidate for president of Republika Srpska, with party leader and ex-President Milorad Dodik. Photo: EPA/NIDAL SALJIC
According to preliminary results, Sinisa Karan is the new president of the Bosnian Serb-run Republika Srpska entity after winning Sunday’s election – but his victory is being disputed by the opposition.
Karan, a member of Milorad Dodik’s Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, SNSD party, will take this position until the October 2026 general election, following Dodik’s removal from the office in August this year.
Dodik was ousted amid a major political crisis in the country, after he was sentenced to one year in prison and received a six-year ban on holding the office of the president for not complying with the decisions of Bosnia’s international peace overseer, the High Representative.
After 92.79 per cent of the returns from polling stations were processed, it was established Sinisa Karan received 200,116 votes (50.89 per cent), while Blanusa received 188,010 votes (47.81 per cent). However, turnout was low, at just around 35 per cent.
“The Serb people have now given a final answer – no to any foreigner or usurper who believes they can change [their] will, and they have said that they can decide their own future,” Karan said after declaring victory.
He promised to “pursue investment and work, economic growth and recovery” while protecting the entity’s “constitutional freedoms”.
“We’re moving move forward to a new victory and to building Republika Srpska into an even better place to live,” he added.
Numerous irregularities and alleged violations of the Election Law were reported during election day. The Central Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina will have the final say on these claims.
The president of the opposition People’s Front, Jelena Trivic, accused the SNSD of stealing the election.
“Already seen – theft in several local communities, this time again in Doboj and Zvornik, plus Laktasi, where the results are not counted but ‘created’,” Trivic said.
“The faces of Dodik and Karan are not the faces of the winners. A repeat of the elections in these three local communities – Doboj, Zvornik and Laktasi – must be the opposition’s goal. We in the People’s Front are ready for that fight, because theft can neither be acknowledged nor congratulated,” she added.
A senior official from the opposition Serb Democratic Party, Darko Babalj, said after the Central Election Commission announced the election results that the result was “yet again a major theft by the regime.”
“How are we supposed to react to all this looting by a criminal octopus?” Babalj asked, in a statement to RTV BN. He added that society in Republika Srpska is divided, “as the results show”.
For the purposes of the election, 2,211 polling stations were set up, and 139 mobile teams operated in the field. A total of 1,264,364 voters were eligible to vote, including 20,269 who voted by post, while 258 voters cast their ballots at Bosnia and Herzegovina’s diplomatic-consular missions in Munich, Berlin, Vienna and Belgrade.