The pro-Russian candidate wins the presidential election in the Serb-majority republic of Bosnia.

BarcelonaSinisa Karan, candidate of the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) and a trusted man of the pro-Russian ultranationalist Milorad Dodik, He won the snap presidential election in Republika Srpska on Sunday with 50.9% of the vote, according to preliminary results from the Electoral Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Karan, 63, a former Interior Minister and current Minister of Technology, was the separatist leader Dodik's personal choice to replace him after Dodik was sentenced last August to a six-year ban from holding public office for disobeying the decisions of High Representative Christian Schmidt, who was responsible for the veto. "Schmidt and his supporters wanted to disrupt the system of government established 30 years ago. I will not give in. We will continue with even greater strength," Karan said on Sunday after his party declared him the winner. "The Serbian people have given a resounding answer today to any foreigner, to any usurper," he added.

Republika Srpska, with its Serb majority, and the Federation, where Bosnian Muslims and Croats coexist, have formed Bosnia and Herzegovina since the Dayton Agreement, which in November 1995 ended a three-year war that left nearly 100,000 dead. It was the most serious conflict of all those that accompanied the disintegration of Yugoslavia. Dodik supports the secession of Republika Srpska, contrary to what was stipulated in the agreements, which sanctioned the ethnic division of Bosnia after the conflict.

For his part, Dodik celebrated the victory emphatically: "Our candidate, Sinisa Karan, has won today's elections. There is no doubt about it," he proclaimed to his supporters at the party headquarters in Banja Luka, the capital of Republika Srpska. "They wanted to remove Dodik through an unfair process; now they have two Dodiks and they'll have to deal with us every day," he argued, asserting that the vote has further strengthened his power.

Karan's term will be brief: he will hold office for less than a year, until the general elections scheduled for October 2026. However, these elections are seen as a key test to gauge the mobilization capacity of the Dodik's nationalist projectwho has dominated the politics of Republika Srpska for almost two decades. The Bosnian Serb leader has repeatedly threatened to break up Bosnia, which he calls a "failed state," and to integrate Republika Srpska into Serbia. He has also described Bosnian Muslims as a "destructive" force against Serbs and continues to deny the Srebrenica genocide.

Allegation of irregularities

Karan's main rival, Branko Blanusa of the Serbian Democratic Party (SDS), won 47.81% of the vote. A 56-year-old electrical engineering professor and until now a relatively unknown figure, Blanusa focused his campaign on fighting corruption and halting the "state capture" he attributes to Dodik and the SNSD. The SDS claims to have evidence of irregularities at several polling stations and has demanded that the elections be repeated in certain localities. Local organizations have also reported incidents such as a lack of election materials and obstacles to the work of election observers.