Bosnia votes with wartime divisions still dominating

Bosnia was heading to the polls on Sunday after a general election campaign dominated by parties that identify closely with the ethnic divisions of its 1990s war.

Voters will elect a dizzying number of officials across multiple tiers of government, in a complex system that has held the partitioned country together since the 1995 peace deal.

Its key race will be for the tripartite presidency, split between Bosnian Muslims or Bosniaks, and the Serb and Croat ethnic groups, with frontrunners pitting visions of a united country against greater autonomy for the Serb-run entity while Croats seek greater political representation.

But the major parties' repeated focus on war-era rhetoric and division was frustrating for some voters, activist Adi Selman of the Karton Revolucija protest group told AFP.

"I don't think these new elections in Bosnia will change anything," the 34-year-old said in the northern Bosnian town of Tuzla, ahead of the vote.

"The choice is limited to political parties that have already been around for 30 years and basically pick up votes by harping on about war, tensions, divisions and the past."

The U.S.-brokered Dayton agreement ended the 1992-1995 conflict but entrenched divisions that often paralyse decision-making.

It divided Bosnia into two semi-autonomous entities -- the Serb-run Republika Srpska (RS) and a Muslim-Croat federation -- linked by a weak central government.

AFP