Dr. Kovačević: Ipsos research showed that in BiH we don't have elections, but a struggle of party members

The rating, or rather the distribution of parties in the Federation of BiH among voters, at least according to what Ipsos published, looks like SDA is still in first place with 31 percent support, followed by HDZBiH (21), SDPBiH (14), Democratic Front (11), SBBBiH (seven percent), etc.

In Republika Srpska among decided voters, Ipsos further states, SNSD has 53 percent support, SDS 22, DNS eight, PDP seven percent...

This analysis should be taken with a grain of salt because every third respondent refuses to state who they would vote for, it was warned.

Slaven Kovačević, Doctor of Political Science, says that this poll indicates several things, including that the political scene in Bosnia and Herzegovina is not a struggle among voters, but a struggle between party infrastructures.

“If less than 50 percent of voters turn out for elections, then it is actually a struggle between party infrastructures,” Kovačević believes, writes Patria.

“The increasing number of political parties in BiH – more than 190 parties registered, around a hundred parties participate in elections – is too much for a country of about four million inhabitants, which undeniably leads to a decreasing turnout of citizens in elections. Then you have a 'struggle' only among party members, one against another, where the party with the most members regularly wins and forms the government, while citizens actually have almost no say anymore, because party infrastructures actually determine the final outcome of the elections,” believes Dr. Kovačević. It is devastating, he says, that a huge portion of citizens in BiH wants a system where jobs are bought. This can be a big problem for those who want to offer a completely opposite system, one in which the best candidates are hired based on their knowledge.

For him, it would be extremely detrimental if the Ipsos results were realized and if Bosnia and Herzegovina continued to be led by SDA and HDZ after the 2018 elections.

“This would definitively divide this country,” believes Dr. Kovačević.