Dodik's party barely wins rigged elections. Thoughts?
Posted by KulaTube@reddit | AskBalkans | View on Reddit | 101 comments
We in Republika Srpska had snap presidential elections because of Dodik's removal from office earlier this year. His puppet Sinisa Karan won narrowly by just 2% thanks to mass election fraud. Despite that I still think this is a fantastic result for the opposition and if the elections get repeated on few critical voting stations, they could even overturn the result. This is definitely beginning of the end for Dodik and maybe Bosnia will finally enter the period of relative peace.
kreklulalamaraodoma@reddit
35% turnout lol
exhiale@reddit
What did you expect? RS paints a typical picture of BiH - complete apathy and disbelief in the democratic system.
Electrical_Waterbed@reddit
RS is literally destroying BiH. I can't understanding that a political entity can be so hostile toward the very country it is a constituan part of. Like, they can at least try to make things work and be all right for the mutual benifit of all the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina, instead of doing everything possible just to spite the other entities. I mean, they do make up about a third of the total population of BiH, and like it or not, they are a fundamental part of BiH, so why don't they start acting like it.
DISCLAIMER: I'm talking about the political leaders in Banja Luka, not the people of RS
NoPlisNo@reddit
I don’t know what’s not understandable for you about it, Serbs in RS don’t want to be there. They feel that they are forced to be part of RS, therefore don’t have BiH’s best interests in mind.
Electrical_Waterbed@reddit
Yeah but it's not like they can do anything about it. Like it or not, RS is a part of the country of Bosnia and Herzegovina, thats just how it is and is hopefully not going to change any time soon, so they might as well accept it.
NoPlisNo@reddit
Right, great job job you solved all problems and no one’s upset anymire
Discipline_Cautious1@reddit
Pretty ironic that a group that literally wiped people out to take their land now cries that they were the ones forced out.
neobicnicovek@reddit
Well, each of the three constituent peoples sticks to its own side. As far as I know the croatian member of the presidency is often elected by bosniak votes. In addition in some places, as far as I know, there is discrimination against bosniaks, such as in the city Stolac. Much in the country depends on foreign intervention, even the adoption of the budget that was only recently adopted for 2025.
New_Breadfruit5664@reddit
I mean your current Governor used to be the agrarian minister in my country for a hyper corrupt party and I'm kinda sure no one in bih voted for that guy ^^
Not much of a democratic system you guys have there
kreklulalamaraodoma@reddit
Idk even know what to expect anymore :(
Alex_1729@reddit
Crazy thing is, in the cities where it was rigged, the turnout is above 80%.
Vajdugaa@reddit
Third of those not voting are diaspora
PasicT@reddit
Why would diaspora vote massively in an election that doesn't impact them?
Vajdugaa@reddit
There are 1,2 milion registered voters.
Take diaspora out of that numbee and you have voting turnout of 45-50%
PasicT@reddit
The number of registered voters is greatly exaggerated given that only maybe 700 000 people actually live there and are elligible to vote, at most.
Vajdugaa@reddit
Then voting turnout is 61%
PasicT@reddit
No. because most people don't vote anyways.
Vajdugaa@reddit
440k people voted, if according to you there is 700k voters turnout is 61%. Simple maths
PasicT@reddit
Not everyone who voted lives there, there were buses coming from Serbia like every election and a certain percentage of the diaspora voted too.
Vajdugaa@reddit
Ok. Lets say 40k are diaspora plus buses from Serbia
400,000 divided by 700,000 is 57,14% voters turnout ratio.
PasicT@reddit
There are many factors that come into play and not everyone elligible to vote voted.
Vajdugaa@reddit
Your turnout vote ratio
PasicT@reddit
Like I said, many factors that come into play.
Vajdugaa@reddit
Yeah sure, 300k are fake voters
Lonely-Ad-9219@reddit
Actually, they are. I am from Serbia, and the same thing is happening here. Voters from neighbourhood countries massively come to Serbia by busses on the election day.
zargug2@reddit
Bro js doesn't like the truth, thats all.
PasicT@reddit
There is massive fraud in that entity specifically, anything is possible.
Anticitizen_One_27@reddit
A big sign that it is a failed state…
djo__po93@reddit
Unreal numbers, about 450k voted, which means there was 1.3M registered voters which is highly unlikely considering migration and mortality rate over the last 30 years. Realistic number is more likely to be between 700k and 900k population (deduct minors and you get about 600-700k voters)
No-Championship-4632@reddit
Perfectly normal turnout for Bulgaria after 7 or 8 elections in just a few years...
SolaireOfChadstora@reddit
Elections in BiH in general have low turnout. A good chunk of the people i know dont vote, they just dont care
MLukaCro@reddit
Better Dodik than Karadžić's party.
Spervox@reddit
It's not 1991.
exhiale@reddit
Well, you're wrong tbh. And this is coming from a Croat from BiH. SDS is nowadays more moderate than SNSD. SNSD took their role in the last 20 years, even if they were a "moderate" party to begin with.
PasicT@reddit
It's the same thing, they all have the same ideology and mindset when it comes to non-Serbs.
exhiale@reddit
I would say SDS got better with the years. But they are still shit. Just better than SNSD.
PasicT@reddit
It's not a proper democratic alternative.
exhiale@reddit
Of course it isn't. This does not exist in BiH. I'm sure you're aware.
PasicT@reddit
It does but not among Serbs.
exhiale@reddit
Easy to say for you, being a part of the majority. I agree in one part, we should all stop supporting ethnic parties.
PasicT@reddit
This isn't about me or being part of the majority. I am just as critical of Bosniak ethnic parties as I am of non-Bosniak ethnic parties. I never voted for ethnic parties and never will.
exhiale@reddit
Well, u/PasicT, I am postively surprised with your opinion on ethnic parties and I have to say, you are right.
PasicT@reddit
Why positively? I've spoken out numerous times here against ethnic parties, this is easily verifiable.
FloppyDiskDrives@reddit
You’re hiding your comments, it’s not easily verifiable. You’re full of poop pal.
exhiale@reddit
His comments are typically Bosniak nationalist, I see him often on these subs, but alas. I'm not clueless about what SDS is, but Dodiks cronies need to get a slap in the face.
FloppyDiskDrives@reddit
I’m pretty sure he’s a Croat.
exhiale@reddit
No, he's Bosniak. I am very sure of this because of his other comments on different Balkan subs :D.
FloppyDiskDrives@reddit
Ahh ok. Nvm then. Doesn’t matter what he is his opinions are not objective.
PasicT@reddit
It is easily verifiable by just going on certain subs and looking at my comments about SDA for instance.
FloppyDiskDrives@reddit
Hahaha womp womp wooooop.
i_getitin@reddit
When did the mass migration of Croats from Croatia to BiH happen ?
Sad_Philosopher_3163@reddit
What are you talking about? Oh, I see, looked at your profile. So, according to your Serbian nationalist views, Serbs outside of Serbia are Serbs, but Croats outside of Croatia are not. Dalmatia was Serbian you say as well? Are you by any chance a "Serb" (or orthodox vlach if we are going with your logic) from Croatia?
i_getitin@reddit
No you’re panicking and reaching my dude. Serbs in Croatia can point to the exact migration patterns their ancestor undertook to the Krajina frontier primarily from Serbia and Montenegro. Many were invited to help populate the military frontier.
I’m just simply asking, out of curiosity, what were the mass migration patterns that Croatians from Croatia undertook the settlers the lands of BiH?
As far as I am aware, Croatians in Croatia proper, consider you people as “Bosanci”. Perhaps they might not say it to your face out of respect. I mean, it’s not by chance that Bosnian Catholics feel like they have to always be the biggest and patriotic “Croats” in the room.
Anyways, I’d love to learn about these mass migrations out of Croatia. I love learning about history !
Sad_Philosopher_3163@reddit
And those same Serbs are called as Orthodox Vlachs in Bosnia and Croatia by nationalist Bosniaks and Croats, they negate their identity because they did not have a defined Serbian national identity until the 19th century. Obviously, they are Serbs today, but identities in the Balkans before the 19th century were not fixed and were not even particularly important. There are even medieval Serb documents that distinguish Serbs and Vlachs, look it up.
What kind of logic is that? Migrations? So according to your logic, someone from the Dalmatian hinterland is a Croat, but someone just across the border in Herzegovina is not, even though they are literally the same. When did Serbs supposedly migrate from Serbia to Montenegro? Why are there Serbs there if the country is called Montenegro and Montenegrins live there as far as i know? Also, look up early medieval Croatia, its first županije reached up to Vrbas and the Neretva. But this should not even matter. Look up Turkish Croatia and Turkish Dalmatia during ottoman times.
As far as i am aware, Serbs from actual Serbia call Serbs from Bosnia as Bosanci, those from Herzegovina as Hercegovci, those from Montenegro as Crnogorci, those from Croatia as Dalmatinci, Slavonci, or Krajišnici, and those from Kosovo as Kosovari. Why do they still call themselves Serbs by your logic, and why do they often act like they are "bigger Serbs" than people from Serbia itself? Is that the logic you are looking for?
i_getitin@reddit
No im asking when these migrations occurred from Croatia to BiH.
Many Serbs in Krajina can trace their lineage to Serbia/Montenegro. The migrations to the Krajina Frontier is WELL documented.
Even during Yugoslav days, Catholic Bosnians would come to Croatia for work and they would be called “Bosanci”. This was done so with the intention to emphasize “they are not like us or one of us”.
In Croatia when you call someone a Bosanac, it carries certain connotations, and not necessarily positive.
Perhaps in modern times Croatians are more welcoming of Catholics from Bosnia as they would prefer to have them as neighbours than Serbs or other minority groups that they worked so hard to expel and liquidate.
Sad_Philosopher_3163@reddit
Yes, and they had no Serbian identity when they migrated, not until the 19th century. So why are they considered Serbs? But if your "silver lining" is simply "migrations", used by you to justify why you are a Serb in Croatia and why Croats from BiH supposedly are not, then lol.
Also, why would some from Croatia migrate to BiH during Ottoman times? What kind of logic is that? The migrations were always in the opposite direction, since Christians, who were second class citizens btw, moved out of the Ottoman controlled territories into Venetian and Austro-Hungarian territories. Does the shape of Croatia look natural to you? It is almost as if the middle ("gut") is missing, doesnt it?
Maybe they were called Bosanac or Hercegovac because that is where they are from? And look up the connotations of Bosanac, Kosovar or Crnogorac in Belgrade or Vojvodina. Actually, the amount of hate Serbs from outside of Serbia get right now from Serbs in Serbia is pretty huge.
There it is, you have finally exposed the reason behind your "views".
Mental_Valuable8710@reddit
" Long live Republic of Srpska" Dragan" i don't give a shit about Posavina and Bosanska Krajina Croatians" Čović . HDZ of Bosnia and Herzegovina is pretty much Pro Serbian in every fucking way, their bots are constantly repeating Križančevo Selo, Buhine Kuće and Grabovica only because those crimes are committed by us Bosniaks but yeah who the fuck gives a shit about Croatians in besieged Sarajevo, Briševo and Prijedor, Croatians of Bihać, Banja Luka and Bosnian Posavina because muh evil Jihadist Bosniak Muslims and based Serb Christian brothers and look at Milanović he is totally ok with Srpska and Dodik but Kosovo being a country is not ok.
MLukaCro@reddit
Moderate in what way?
No-Specialist-1435@reddit
Bosnia is in peace for 30 years my well meaning dude.
Senninn@reddit
But what is the difference between SNSD and SDS? Aren’t both pretty serb nationalistic and SDS being even worse? Both of them are ”pretty bad” for Bosnia as a country?
Fickle-Message-6143@reddit
SDS was stripped bare by International community and OHR after war up to 2005. It was reformed.
Now you can't have one party rulling for more than decade, even if they both seems or are same. You need to switch them.
Candid_Company_3289@reddit
Why is that?
MrImAlwaysrighT1981@reddit
Basically, but Dodik rules for 20 years, and it's seems better for everyone for him to lose. Is it though, we cannot know for sure.
responsible_car_golf@reddit
Pretty much MAGA vs regular Republicans
ecov19@reddit
Both are shite parties, but SDS does not threaten or support separatism in the same way that SNSD does.
Fickle-Message-6143@reddit
First those were not main elections. This means that Karan will be president less than year. T
Then turnout was very low, in 2022 more than 600 000 people voted. For this elections the number is around 400k.
Two biggest cities in Srpska voted for opposition and a lot of other places. The biggest SNSD supporters are Doboj and Zvornik that is why they are becoming shitholes.
Also in voting places near and on border of Serbia the votes were imported from Serbia.
When we count all that it is not bad. Only few % difference. Look at Vučić, he wins presidental elections with 30-40% difference.
Candid_Company_3289@reddit
Banja Luka and Bijeljina have been voting for the opposition for a very long time. That was never Dodik's base. He still seems to firmly hold everything else.
elienzs@reddit
Where the fuck are you getting the idea that votes were imported from Serbia, what does that even mean to you
i_getitin@reddit
“Why would people from Croatia to BiH…”
Ahh, finally you give me the simple answer I was looking for. You’re right they wouldn’t. Hence you Catholics from Hercegovina and Bosnia are a distinct people with a distinct history apart from the Croats from Croatia.
Thanks for the lesson!
karlowolf05@reddit
You're pretty special kind of stupid, when did Serbs migrate to Bosnia?
i_getitin@reddit
They didn’t have to, they settled their as the Slavs migrated towards the Balkan region. And as we know, many would later convert to Islam and some to Catholicism. Hence why BiH has Bosnian Catholics and Bosnian Muslims.
karlowolf05@reddit
You just given yourself the answer about Croats in Bosnia in the first sentence.
And with the rest you just proved it ain't worth discussing with. Why would anyone in Bosnia switch to Catholicism during Turkish rule? 🤣
i_getitin@reddit
Which part of Hercegovina are you from brother ?
karlowolf05@reddit
Yeah, whatever floats your boat...
Southern-Standard579@reddit
Lol
Scary_Bottle2959@reddit
All available political options licks dirt
Unable-Stay-6478@reddit
I wonder how many votes got imported from Serbia...
elienzs@reddit
How do you imagine that happening?
MrImAlwaysrighT1981@reddit
People who have bosnian passports, and are getting payed and transported to the places in Bosnia near border, from Serbia, to vote for the "right" candidate and/or party.
elienzs@reddit
If a person has Bosnian citizenship then they have the full right to vote in Bosnia for whoever they want regardless of where they currently reside.
I’ve yet to see any actual evidence of anyone being paid to vote this way or that way. There is nothing but hearsay.
Also you would not need to be transported to Bosnia to vote in these elections as the consulate of RS in Serbia organized elections there as well. Same thing goes for Austria, Germany, etc. places where Bosnian (RS) citizens live as emigrees in larger numbers.
So the only plausible way that this theory can happen is still well… fully legal and democratic. A person with citizenship votes, wow!
Same thing goes vice versa for Serbian elections, there were these same accusations being thrown.
It is always the other side’s fault… Maybe people should just accept that there are still supporters of these politicians at home and that’s that.
MrImAlwaysrighT1981@reddit
No, it's not the same, because that would be seen on the results, people voting abroad are counted separatelly, and there's not much votes from abroad, in general.
You can believe what you want, I didn't try to persuade you, but to explain to people who ask themselves same question, how and why.
Whole Bosnia has around 2,5 million people living there, but there's almost milion more voters registered, cause of all those who left the country from 1992 onwards. But, there's very few votes coming from abroad, which gives lot of chances for manipulation with the votes of the absenties. And there's a lot of it.
elienzs@reddit
What does it matter if its seen where they voted from?
All in all like I said, it’s nothing but groundless conspiracy as far as I can see, not a shred of actual evidence in sight.
It’s pure copium.
Unable-Stay-6478@reddit
Don't know, ask Vučić.
elienzs@reddit
First off fuck Vucic.
Secondly ok I see since you like talking out of your ass and stirring hatred and shit for no reason, there is no need to speak with you further.
Babosmarach666@reddit
It's rigged when your candidate doesn't win 🤡. How the fuck is he rigging the elections when everything is controlled by the ones who removed him from power? Does Schmidt want Dodos puppet as president of RS? You people are really stupid
Hornisan-@reddit
branimir2208@reddit
Karan in Serbian means fucked
Mental_Valuable8710@reddit
Literally " poturica" surname just like KARAdžić.
Sad_Philosopher_3163@reddit
"Poturica" surname? What are you even talking about? Kara means "black" in Turkish and this region has plenty of Turkish loanwords, just like Dalmatia has many Venetian ones. Also, many surnames originally started as nicknames and were later adopted as family names. Karadža means something like "dark-skinned" or "dark-haired", so that nickname stuck and eventually became Karadžić. It’s easy to use Google.
FloppyDiskDrives@reddit
No man, that’s just not correct. If you want an actual autochthonous Bosnian surname, look at something like ‘Hadzihafizbegović.’
New_Accident_4909@reddit
Thats Ottoman, not autochtonus. Not sure if you are trolling or serious
FloppyDiskDrives@reddit
That was the whole point of my comment…..
kerelberel@reddit
The abysmal turn out is a good reason we can't have nice things.
NiceKaleidoscope5066@reddit
'Despite that people think this is fantastic results for the opposition...' this one comes off familiar. Is Bosnia Turkey?
Jazzcatflickr@reddit
Too much elections in previous years which ended up with 50,005 % winners...? What are the chances...
Shot-Life-362@reddit
I’m gonna assume they do this in Bosnia as well, just like in Kosova.
peradbojkot@reddit
Just low turnout and Dodik's candidate bare win at the elections... You still have chance to win regular elections next year.
And also remember how many voters did Vučić import in just one 7000 habitants town in June just to barely win the elections.
_whatever_idc@reddit
Man the turnouts in recent elections everywhere speak more than words.
PasicT@reddit
To be fair, this isn't the main elections. Most people didn't even really know or care about these preliminary elections. National elections in Bosnia usually have 49-50% voter turnout, not great but it's not 30%.
_whatever_idc@reddit
I know its not general election but I just get the vibe of: “I’m tired boss”
Available-Badger-163@reddit
Лол Синиша КАРАН