As Bosnia heads towards elections Sunday, candidates are ramping up nationalist rhetoric, testing the seams of a country still struggling to unite a quarter-century after it was torn apart by war.
The Balkan state is stitched together by a tenuous power-sharing arrangement between groups that clashed during the 1992-1995 conflict: Serbs, Croats and Bosnian Muslims, also known as Bosniaks.
Sunday's poll will put the country's complex political system on full display, with voters casting ballots for a dizzying array of leaders and legislatures to fill out Bosnia's numerous layers of government.
The main race will be a run for the three-headed presidency, which rotates every eight months between a Serb, Croat and Bosnian Muslim leader.
But in a sign of the nationalism threatening the country's fragile status, the front-runner for the Serb presidency seat, Milorad Dodik, is a man who regularly calls post-war Bosnia a "failed concept".
Just this week, the US-sanctioned candidate told a crowd in Zvornik, which lies on the border with Serbia: "When you talk about (Bosnia), don't talk about a state, talk about a territory."
Dodik, a pro-Russian nationalist in the running for the central presidency, has led Bosnia's Serb sub-region since 2006 and has periodically called for a referendum on its independence.
His rival for the Serb presidential seat, incumbent Mladen Ivanic, is warning voters that Dodik is leading Serbs towards "uncertainty, risk, conflict, and isolation".
- Dayton disfunction -
More than two decades after the war that claimed 100,000 lives, Bosnia is still governed by the Dayton Peace Accords that ended the fighting.
The deal cut Bosnia into two semi-autonomous zones -- the Serb-run Republika Srpska and a Muslim-Croat Federation.
The so-called "entities" are bound by weak central institutions.
Critics say the Dayton system has enshrined Bosnia's communal divides and thwarted effective governance for the population of 3.5 million.
During the campaign, the country's official anthem is played at events by small multi-ethnic parties and by Bosnian Muslims parties.
But parties linked to the two other communities -- Serbs and Croats -- often play the national anthems of the countries of Serbia and Croatia, which flank Bosnia's borders.
While Serbs dominate Republika Srpska, Croats are a minority in their half of the country, which is three-quarters Bosnian Muslims and home to the capital Sarajevo.
That set-up has fed a nationalist Croat movement to create a third entity of their own, a vision backed by the incumbent Croat member of the presidency, Dragan Covic.
His Croat opponent, Zeljko Komsic, warns that such a move would mean "inevitable conflict".
You "cannot redraw the borders in Bosnia without war," Komsic told supporters at a recent campaign rally.
- Political fatigue -
Bosnian politicians have trapped the country in "an ethno-nationalist matrix, where fear of others is created and spread", said political analyst Tanja Topic.
"It is on this basis of fear that ethno-nationalists have ruled this area for decades and have not given up," she told AFP.
Meanwhile "barely a word is said about poverty," said economist Zarko Papic, despite Bosnia being one of Europe's poorest countries.
Permanent political instability coupled with the country's government system is deterring foreign investment, he added.
For many Bosnians, the most pressing concerns are the faltering economy, widespread corruption and high unemployment, especially among young people.
Many roads and other infrastructure are also in poor condition, with graft and a sprawling bureaucracy hampering development.
Amar Ramovic, a 40-year-old computer scientist, says he will vote on Sunday -- but only to annul his ballot.
"I really do not see a single party proposing anything concrete. I no longer expect anything from this political class," he told AFP.
Polls will open from 7:00 am (0500 GMT) to 7:00 pm (1700 GMT) on Sunday.
As Bosnia heads towards elections Sunday, candidates are ramping up nationalist rhetoric, testing the seams of a country still struggling to unite a quarter-century after it was torn apart by war.
The Balkan state is stitched together by a tenuous power-sharing arrangement between groups that clashed during the 1992-1995 conflict: Serbs, Croats and Bosnian Muslims, also known as Bosniaks.
Sunday’s poll will put the country’s complex political system on full display, with voters casting ballots for a dizzying array of leaders and legislatures to fill out Bosnia’s numerous layers of government.
The main race will be a run for the three-headed presidency, which rotates every eight months between a Serb, Croat and Bosnian Muslim leader.
But in a sign of the nationalism threatening the country’s fragile status, the front-runner for the Serb presidency seat, Milorad Dodik, is a man who regularly calls post-war Bosnia a “failed concept”.
Just this week, the US-sanctioned candidate told a crowd in Zvornik, which lies on the border with Serbia: “When you talk about (Bosnia), don’t talk about a state, talk about a territory.”
Dodik, a pro-Russian nationalist in the running for the central presidency, has led Bosnia’s Serb sub-region since 2006 and has periodically called for a referendum on its independence.
His rival for the Serb presidential seat, incumbent Mladen Ivanic, is warning voters that Dodik is leading Serbs towards “uncertainty, risk, conflict, and isolation”.
– Dayton disfunction –
More than two decades after the war that claimed 100,000 lives, Bosnia is still governed by the Dayton Peace Accords that ended the fighting.
The deal cut Bosnia into two semi-autonomous zones — the Serb-run Republika Srpska and a Muslim-Croat Federation.
The so-called “entities” are bound by weak central institutions.
Critics say the Dayton system has enshrined Bosnia’s communal divides and thwarted effective governance for the population of 3.5 million.
During the campaign, the country’s official anthem is played at events by small multi-ethnic parties and by Bosnian Muslims parties.
But parties linked to the two other communities — Serbs and Croats — often play the national anthems of the countries of Serbia and Croatia, which flank Bosnia’s borders.
While Serbs dominate Republika Srpska, Croats are a minority in their half of the country, which is three-quarters Bosnian Muslims and home to the capital Sarajevo.
That set-up has fed a nationalist Croat movement to create a third entity of their own, a vision backed by the incumbent Croat member of the presidency, Dragan Covic.
His Croat opponent, Zeljko Komsic, warns that such a move would mean “inevitable conflict”.
You “cannot redraw the borders in Bosnia without war,” Komsic told supporters at a recent campaign rally.
– Political fatigue –
Bosnian politicians have trapped the country in “an ethno-nationalist matrix, where fear of others is created and spread”, said political analyst Tanja Topic.
“It is on this basis of fear that ethno-nationalists have ruled this area for decades and have not given up,” she told AFP.
Meanwhile “barely a word is said about poverty,” said economist Zarko Papic, despite Bosnia being one of Europe’s poorest countries.
Permanent political instability coupled with the country’s government system is deterring foreign investment, he added.
For many Bosnians, the most pressing concerns are the faltering economy, widespread corruption and high unemployment, especially among young people.
Many roads and other infrastructure are also in poor condition, with graft and a sprawling bureaucracy hampering development.
Amar Ramovic, a 40-year-old computer scientist, says he will vote on Sunday — but only to annul his ballot.
“I really do not see a single party proposing anything concrete. I no longer expect anything from this political class,” he told AFP.
Polls will open from 7:00 am (0500 GMT) to 7:00 pm (1700 GMT) on Sunday.
