Milorad Dodik’s party announced that it has won the elections in Republika Srpska, the Serb entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
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Nationalist parties also achieved significant results in other parts of the country, increasing the likelihood that tensions will continue both in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in the region.
“We have won,” Dodik declared before his supporters in Banja Luka on Sunday evening.
He said the first figures show that the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, SNSD, will continue to govern in Republika Srpska.
The elections were held on 4 October, when citizens voted for the tripartite Presidency and the Parliament of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as for legislative bodies at other levels, including the Assembly of Republika Srpska.
The country’s complicated political structure is the result of the Dayton Agreement, which ended the 1992-1995 war.
The agreement divided Bosnia and Herzegovina into two entities with broad autonomy: Republika Srpska and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, where Bosniaks and Croats make up the majority.
These two entities are coordinated through central state institutions, which have often faced difficulties in functioning.
After 92 percent of the votes had been counted, Dodik, a pro-Russian politician, declared that SNSD candidate Željka Cvijanović is expected to take a seat in the tripartite Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The Bosniak seat is expected to go to the current pro-Western member of the Presidency, Denis Bećirović.
Meanwhile, the Croat seat is predicted to be won by Darijana Filipović of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ).
Filipović, 39, is expected to be the youngest member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina since the end of the 1992-1995 war.
Dodik, who for years has sought to expand Republika Srpska’s autonomy vis-à-vis central institutions and occasionally uses separatist rhetoric, also attributed the victory to the presidents of the United States and Russia.
“Had it not been for Donald Trump’s magnificent victory… today we would probably be political corpses,” he declared before supporters.
“But now, thanks to the new circumstances, we are political winners,” said Dodik, who also expressed gratitude to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Our political positions remain unwavering and we will not give them up. We will continue to work for the good of our people,” he said.
Dodik, the former leader of Republika Srpska, is 67 years old and did not run in these elections, as he has been banned from holding public office.
Despite this, his portrait was placed on billboards throughout Republika Srpska, where he continues to have great political influence.
Dodik and other Republika Srpska officials had earlier been placed under United States sanctions for alleged violations of the Dayton Agreement, which ended the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as for refusing to implement the decisions of the international peace envoy.
On 29 October 2025, however, the U.S. Department of the Treasury announced that Dodik and dozens of his allies had been removed from the U.S. sanctions list.
The U.S. institution did not provide explanations for the reasons behind this decision.
During his time leading Republika Srpska, Dodik was criticized for authoritarian tendencies, weakening democratic institutions and building a system of political patronage.
In an election event before the vote, he called for the border between Republika Srpska and Serbia to be removed.
Other nationalist politicians have also called for this entity to unite with Serbia.
SDA leads the race for Parliament
Strong results in the elections for the Parliament of Bosnia and Herzegovina also appear to have been secured by parties with an ethno-nationalist orientation.
Preliminary data rank the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) at the top of the vote in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Behind it come the Social Democratic Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina (SDP BiH) and the Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina (HDZ BiH).
SNSD and Dodik openly oppose NATO membership and maintain a pro-Russian stance, while SDA, HDZ and SDP support integration into the European Union and NATO membership.
Željko Komšić, the outgoing Croat member of the Presidency, said the performance of nationalist parties shows a growing consolidation of the electorate along ethnic lines.
“It is clear that in all parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina an ethnic homogenization of the electorate has taken place,” Komšić said. According to him, the elections proved that “the idea of a civic state currently does not enjoy broad electoral support.”
Although political divisions remain tied to the 1990s conflict, these elections brought as innovations biometric voter verification and the use of scanners for ballot papers.
Due to technical problems, some polling stations started work late.
Bosnia and Herzegovina is the first country in the Western Balkans to apply this system across its entire territory.
The measure was adopted by the Office of the High Representative and is part of reforms aimed at increasing election integrity, within the system created by the Dayton Agreement.
