BANJA LUKA — Voting began Sunday in the snap presidential election in Republika Srpska, the Serb-majority entity within Bosnia and Herzegovina, where more than one million registered voters are choosing a new president following the removal of Milorad Dodik from office.

Polls opened at 7:00 a.m. local time (0600 GMT) across 2,211 polling stations in Republika Srpska and abroad, and will remain open until 7:00 p.m. (1800 GMT).

The first unofficial results are expected before midnight, according to Bosnia’s Central Election Commission.

The election features six candidates competing for the presidency. The frontrunner is widely seen as Sinisa Karan, the minister of science, technology and higher education, who is backed by the Union of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD), the party led by Dodik.

Other contenders include Dragan Djokanovic of the New Policy Union, Branko Blanusa of the Serbian Democratic Party, Nikola Lazarevic of the Ecological Party of Republika Srpska, as well as independent candidates Igor Gasevic and Slavko Dragicevic.

The snap election follows months of political turmoil driven by Dodik’s escalating separatist rhetoric. Dodik repeatedly rejected the authority of the Office of the High Representative (OHR), established under the Dayton Peace Agreement, and refused to recognize High Representative Christian Schmidt.

In June 2023, the Republika Srpska National Assembly, under Dodik’s leadership, voted to halt the publication of Schmidt’s decisions in the entity’s Official Gazette. Schmidt annulled the move, citing powers granted to the OHR to safeguard the peace agreement.

Dodik continued to threaten secession, prompting prosecutors to indict him for failing to comply with OHR decisions.

He was later sentenced to one year in prison and handed a six-year political ban, which was converted into a financial penalty.

The Central Election Commission ultimately removed Dodik from the presidency, triggering Sunday’s vote. — Agencies