Voters in Bosnia’s autonomous Serb Republic cast ballots for a new president in a snap election on Sunday (November 23, 2025), called after the former president, Milorad Dodik, was stripped of office and banned from politics for six years.
The vote will determine whether the Bosnian Serb-dominated region moves away from Dodik’s nationalist agenda or continues with separatist policies that jeopardise the internal cohesion of the fragile Balkan country.
Pro-Russian separatist Dodik was convicted in February of defying the constitutional court and an international peace envoy, leading to Bosnia’s biggest political crisis since the end of its devastating war 30 years ago.
He repeatedly rejected the verdict, which was upheld by an appeals council in August and the constitutional court earlier this month, but in October unexpectedly appointed a loyal ally as his temporary replacement.
Postwar Bosnia comprises the Serb Republic and the Federation, shared by Croats and Bosniaks, linked via a weak central government.
