Turkey welcomes Bosnia elections

ANKARA

Sefik Dzaferovic (L), the presidential candidate from the main Muslim SDA party for Bosnia's three-man presidency, flanked by Bakir Izetbegovic, the SDA party leader, speaks at the party headquarters in Sarajevo on October 7, 2018.

Turkey has welcomed the presidential and parliamentary elections held in Bosnia and Herzegovina on Oct. 7.

“We welcome that the general elections were completed in tranquility and peace,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

“Turkey, which attaches great importance to the protection of Bosnia’s political unity and territorial integrity as well as its integration to Euro-Atlantic organizations, wishes that the election results lead to the consolidation of peace and stability in the country and serve the peaceful coexistence among Bosnian citizens,” the statement added.

“In the upcoming period, Turkey will continue to strive to further improve her excellent relations with Bosnia and Herzegovina in every field as well as to strengthen stability and increase prosperity in the Balkans,” the ministry said.

Bosnian Serb nationalist leader Milorad Dodik and Sefik Dzaferovic, the candidate of the largest Muslim Bosniak party, have won the Serb and Bosniak seats in Bosnia’s triumvirate presidency, the election commission said early Oct. 8.

Moderate Croat Zeljko Komsic, who already served two terms in the presidency, won the Croat seat with 49.5 percent of the vote, winning over nationalist Dragan Covic from the largest Croat party, HDZ.

Dodik secured 55 percent of the vote and Dzaferovic 38 percent, based on about 42 percent of counted ballots.

The turnout was 53.3 percent of voters.

The ballot was a test for Bosnia to determine if it will progress towards European Union membership and NATO integration or remain held back by ethnic rivalries.

More than two decades after a war in which 100,000 died, leading Serb, Croat and Muslim Bosniak parties campaigned on nationalist tickets, reviving wartime pledges while failing to offer any clear economic or political visions.