Polls opened Saturday in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where about 3.4 million voters are choosing new leaders at national and regional levels. The result could affect the country’s bid to join the European Union.
Voters are electing the three members of the multiethnic presidency, national Parliament lawmakers and the heads of institutions in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) and Republika Srpska, the Serb-dominated entity.
The complex system was created by the US-brokered 1995 peace agreement to manage divisions between Muslim Bosniaks, Orthodox Serbs and Catholic Croats that fuelled the 1992-95 war.
Activist Adi Selman of the Karton Revolucija protest group told AFP the major parties’ focus on war-era rhetoric frustrates voters. “I don’t think these new elections in Bosnia will change anything,” the 34-year-old said in Tuzla.
