The citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina survived the greatest danger pointed out by some of the caring political leaders - new technologies, especially scanners. And it didn't hurt. Apart from politicians underestimating and belittling citizens that they would not know how to insert a piece of paper into the scanner, which deterred some voters from going to the polls, the process was more than simple. And the least corrupt in the country's election history. Hundreds of dead people who voted in the previous elections could not do so this time, nor could one person, thanks to biometric identification, vote for more than one. The living, on the other hand, confirmed it status quo in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Milorad Dodik threatened on the eve of the election day and upon his arrival from the meeting with Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin that he would not recognize the legitimacy of the elections conducted according to the decision made by an "illegitimate institution" (I guess he meant the Central Election Commission) on the orders of the "illegitimate High Representative". The one he succeeded in "expelling" from Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is celebrated, according to the good old custom, with a song Nobody can do anything to us, acknowledged the results of that "illegitimate process", because they were abundantly in his favor and announced sovereign rule for the next four years, with special thanks to his political friends Trump and Putin. To the President of the United States of America because he says that Christians should be "protected, because they are now on the defensive", to the President of Russia because he never asked him to do anything "to the detriment of Bosniaks". "But I have seen many people who want to work to the detriment of the Serbs", said Milorad Dodik, formally only the president of the party, in reality the prime minister, president of the Parliament, prosecutor, judge, "statesman of great size", as his supporters believe, because few have succeeded in what he has done in international relations on trips from Israel, through America to Russia. Although he was "removed" from political life by the decision of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and therefore from the candidate lists in the last elections, he was the first person on all the posters.
LIST OF MISCONCEPTIONS
Electoral technologies have meant a major step forward in reducing corruption and election theft on election day itself. But everyone who believed, including the opposition, that this would automatically bring them victory, that we would emerge in a free society, and that the entire electoral process would be transparent and fair, were greatly mistaken. Many misconceptions have come to light during these elections. One is that the citizens voted against clientelism, nepotism and corruption, the destruction of the environment through the granting of concessions to both local and cross-border tycoons, connected to the holders of power, for the integration of the country into the European Union, while at the same time they confirmed the government based on anti-values for the next four years. Citizens who declaratively and publicly stand for changes were expressly against them. The scanners reliably captured who and what the citizens wanted.
The authorities worked intensively on the ground, they put a lot of public resources into circulation, money, other "investments" so as not to leave anything to chance, employees in public institutions and administration were blackmailed, votes were bought. And everyone resorted to that, depending on the level of government they are at. The media were under strict control, committed either to the ruling party or the opposition, there was no public confrontation and debate.
The absolute winner of these elections is Dodik. The family tradition, in the supposed formal absence of Dodik senior, was politically inherited by the son who won the most individual votes in the electoral unit to which Banjaluka belongs, more than the self-confident mayor of Banjaluka who promoted himself as a "safe future prime minister" in the election campaign. The saga in the opposition ranks in the Republika Srpska lasted for months, because the party leaders could not agree on a single candidate for entity president and member of the BiH Presidency from the Republika Srpska. Two candidates from the opposition for a member of the BiH Presidency, although they blamed each other, in the final total they had fewer votes than Željka Cvijanović. Branko Blanuša, the president of the Serbian Democratic Party and the opposition's candidate for president of the Republic of Srpska, at some points nominated Draško Stanivuković for the same position, even though the party certified him as its candidate. In the end, without the knowledge of the other members of the coalition, he "dealt" and generously offered Stanivuković the position of prime minister. The university professor, although a presidential candidate, remained in the shadows following an ambitious high school student and lost to Sava Minic, the SNSD candidate, by some 50 votes.
One of the misconceptions of these elections was that the "small" parties, which are mostly Dodik's pendants in the government and Belgrade branches, will disappear from the scene. Because of their proximity to Belgrade, because of their connections with the services, and despite the fact that they lost tens of thousands of votes, they strengthened their position in the parliament and even increased the number of seats. This ensured that they remained in the government structures, and the eternal dilemma of who even votes for those parties remained. Dodik's predominance in the National Assembly is so great that he needs two or three deputies to secure a two-thirds majority. That shouldn't be a big problem, because he can certainly count on those few "flyers".
BLOOMY PROSPECTS
Flirting with Belgrade hurt certain opposition parties, just like mutual quarrels and accusations that some of them cooperate with the ruling parties. Jelena Trivić, the biggest supporter and advocate of the success of Aleksandar Vučić's policy, did not cross the electoral threshold. Trivić entered the elections with an economic program according to which the Republika Srpska was supposed to become an "economic tiger". The Safe Srpska movement, founded on the example of Aleksandar Vučić's movement in Serbia, became the strongest opposition party, with which Draško Stanivuković paved the way on which he would one day become "Dodik instead of Dodik". He is on the right track.
The Serbian Democratic Party is in a prolonged free fall. Part of the membership was managed from Belgrade, part supported candidates that the party did not stand behind, some were excluded from the party overnight, in violation of the statute, some demanded the resignation of Branko Blanuša and submission of accounts for the electoral defeat. Be that as it may, friction in the opposition caused a significant part of opposition voters to stay at home on Sunday. With the low turnout, which was 42,02 percent in BiH and represents the lowest turnout since the war, the question arises as to whether this picture is realistic. More than 3,5 million voters are registered on the voter list, although, according to estimates, no more than 2,5 million people currently live in Bosnia and Herzegovina, while that number in Republika Srpska is estimated at around 800 people. The number of voters in the Republic of Srpska is one million two hundred thousand. Demographer Stevo Pašalić believes that around two million people, including minors, live in the diaspora, while around 50 people have registered to vote abroad.
The Party of Democratic Action has returned to the big door, the long-forgotten Party for Bosnia and Herzegovina has become an indispensable factor in the future government, from the cantonal to the federal to the state level. The "Troika" (Social Democratic Party of BiH, Our Party and Narod i Pravda) ingloriously ended the period of government in which they were the spearheads of reform processes, together with Milorad Dodik, because they praised his transformation and commitment to the European path. Since that time, not a single letter has remained in the election programs, which admittedly did not exist, of political actors. Whether Dodik will now make a U-turn and, together with his partner HDZ, devote himself to the European path and the integration of Bosnia and Herzegovina towards the European Union, which he persistently claims is rotten and in a state of disintegration, or whether he will continue to look at the path of Washington and Moscow, seems to be no longer a dilemma.
Ethno-nationalists won on all sides, voters narrowed national and clientelistic ranks, because how else to analyze the state of society in which Mićo Kraljević, a man convicted of kidnapping another member of parliament and with a confirmed indictment for glorifying war criminals, won 7500 votes, while lawyer and activist in the fight for the protection of human rights Jovana Kisin won 1800 votes. Or that the former State Security Minister Nenad Nešić, after several months in pre-trial detention for money laundering, abuse of official position or authority and accepting bribes, entered the BiH Parliament with over 6000 votes. Corruption, crime and crimes have become the new value paradigms of this society.
