Republika Srpska (RS), one of the two entities in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), will elect a president in early elections on November 23rd who will not hold the position for even a year.
Regular general elections should be held in the first week of October 2026, electing the President of the RS, three members of the Presidency of BiH, and members of the state, two entity, and 10 cantonal assemblies for a full four-year term.
There are no women among this year's six presidential candidates.
More than 1,2 million voters in RS are choosing between Dragan Đokanović, Branko Blanuša, Siniša Karan, Nikola Lazarević, Igor Gašević and Slavko Dragičević.
The winner of the election will be the third president in just a few months, as Milorad Dodik held that position until August 2025, when the Central Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina revoked his mandate.
Then, Dodik's advisor Ana Trišić Babić was appointed to the position of acting president of the RS until a new president is elected.
Four political parties and two independent candidates are running in the elections on Sunday.
The biggest fight is expected between two - Siniša Karan from Milorad Dodik's ruling Alliance of Independent Social Democrats and Branko Blanuša from the opposition coalition led by the Serbian Democratic Party.
Neither of them has much experience in election races, which in BiH usually last a month.
Since these are early elections, the current campaign lasts only two weeks.
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Siniša Karan - long-time politician and first-time candidate
Of all six candidates, the name of Siniša Karan is the most familiar to people.
After the 2022 general elections, he was elected Minister of Police in the RS Government, and in parallel, he served as Dodik's advisor while he was president.
He has held several executive positions in the government and the presidential office, and is a full professor of law at two private universities.
After the dismissal of Radovan Višković's government, Karan was elected Minister of Scientific and Technological Development and Higher Education in the mandate of Sava Minić in September 2025.
He was talked about in the media when he was a defense witness in the case against party leader Milorad Dodik.
Dodik criticized him in the courtroom, believing that Karan was to blame for finding himself in the dock.
"You advised me. We sat and talked for six hours," Dodik told him.
On several occasions, Dodik showed a lack of respect for Karan, even ordering him how to answer questions in the courtroom.
"With yes or no," said Dodik.
The case was finally concluded with a verdict in which Dodik was sentenced to one year in prison (the sentence was replaced with a fine) and a six-year ban on political activity.
Despite the reprimand, Karan was not "punished", but was chosen as Dodik's successor.
Previously, Karan proved to be a loyal and devoted man at the top of the government, since as the Minister of Police of Republika Srpska, he did not allow the arrest of Dodik, but also of the then Prime Minister Radovan Višković and the President of the RS Assembly Nenad Stevandić.
"The Ministry of Interior is protecting Dodik," said Karan, after the Court of BiH issued an arrest warrant for Dodik for failing to respond to court summons.
Eight months after this statement, Dodik is not the president of the entity, but he appears at every election rally of a party that has his full name and surname in its name.
Although Karan is officially the SNSD candidate, the election rallies seem like a tribute to the party leader who is always in the spotlight, and who, alongside Karan, dominates public rallies.
"Srpska will win, for Karan, for Dodik," is the official slogan of the SNSD campaign, and Karan is never alone on billboards.
Next to it is always a photo of Dodik, and sometimes of Željka Cvijanović, a member of the BiH Presidency and vice president of the party.
Even Karan himself acts as if he is not a candidate, so he is not asking voters to vote for him, but for Dodik.
"It is time to confirm the mandate that the people gave to President Milorad Dodik three years ago," Karan said at the start of the campaign, which is also aimed at discrediting the High Representative in BiH, Christian Schmidt.
Branko Blanuša - candidate of the united opposition
Another university professor is running for the post of president of the RS.
Branko Blanuša, a member of the SDS, and a candidate of all opposition parliamentary parties, was not known to the general public until his candidacy, although he was a candidate for the state parliament in 2018.
He is employed as a full professor at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering in Banja Luka, where he was the dean for years.
Until 2013, he was the president of the city committee of the Serbian Progressive Party in Banja Luka, when he moved to the Serbian Democratic Party, whose founder was Radovan Karadžić, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for the genocide in Srebrenica and crimes committed during the war in Bosnia.
At election rallies, he talks about the fight against crime and corruption.
He likes to ride a bike, he says, doesn't watch television and has adopted a blind dog.
His team presents him as a modest, honest and educated man.
"To make Srpska proud again," is the official slogan of his campaign.
"The time for lies is over. Dignity must return to Republika Srpska."
"It's time for public money to go to schools, hospitals, salaries and pensions, not to the villas, apartments and weekend homes of regime strongmen," are the main messages from his election rallies.
Dragan Đokanović - pediatrician on the political scene since 1990.
A long-time pediatrician with a much longer political career, he is entering the race for president of Republika Srpska for the third time.
He was previously a candidate in 1996, and then again 11 years later.
Both times unsuccessful.
He participated in the Founding Assembly of the Serbian People in Bosnia and Herzegovina, at which the Serbian Republic in Bosnia and Herzegovina was proclaimed, and during the war in 1993 he was elected minister in the RS Government as an associate of Radovan Karadžić.
He began his 2025 campaign by visiting World War II execution sites, often speaking of the "genocide of the Serbs."
"I differ from others on the ballot in that my name is written in Latin, while the others are written in Cyrillic."
"I don't know how it happened, but it doesn't matter because both scripts in the Republika Srpska, according to the Constitution, are equal," he said in a TV presentation.
He does not have billboards, does not hold election rallies, but he visits municipalities in the Republika Srpska and municipalities in the Federation of BiH where the majority Serb population lives.
He often goes with his wife and two sons.
In addition to medicine and politics, he was also active in gymnastics as the champion of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and as the junior champion of Yugoslavia in balance beam exercises.
Nikola Lazarević - critics of the government and the opposition
Nikola Lazarević, a member of the Ecological Party of Republika Srpska, will run for president of the RS for the first time.
He previously ran for mayor of East Sarajevo, but did not win enough votes.
Under the slogan "Let the voice of Paljan be heard in Banja Luka," he also ran for the National Assembly, but did not win a mandate.
He had more success in local politics.
He was a councilor in the Pale Municipal Assembly.
He has no billboards or public forums, but he is active on Facebook, where he posts videos called "Coffee with Nidža."
He advocates for greater investments in the eastern part of RS and the preservation of natural resources.
Like Đokanović, he calls for a presidential debate, and is also dissatisfied with the media coverage he receives.
"I remain sorry about the media blockade, that is, that as Nikola Lazarević, an ideologue, visionary, creator of the green sustainable development program and the 'Serbia for the 21st Century' project, I was not able to present myself to the vast majority of citizens with this programmatic-presidential campaign, unlike the other two candidates," he told voters.
He is known as an advocate of a kind of ""All-Serbian Parliament" which was not responded to by politicians from either the government or the opposition.
In early 2024, he went on a hunger strike for several days due to the non-acceptance of four initiatives related to this parliament, they wrote. the media.
Igor Gašević - third time lucky without any effort
For independent candidate Igor Gašević, this is his third presidential election - in each one he has won only a few hundred votes.
In the 2018 elections, he won 733 votes out of nearly 730.000 voters who cast ballots.
Four years later, he won only 251 votes.
The question is what kind of success he expects this year, since he is not running a campaign, there are no public advertisements, and his programs, photos, or biographical details are not available to the public.
He, like the previous two candidates, lives in East Sarajevo.
Local media They wrote that despite his persistence in the elections, he remained politically unknown.
Slavko Dragičević - three times not even a thousand votes
The politician from Doboj was also the head of the local branch of the SNSD for a time, but without much success in politics.
Just like Dragičević, he ran for president in 2018 and then in 2022.
Both times he had under 1.000 votes.
No detailed information is available about him or his candidacy.
Portal Raport.ba He wrote that, together with Gašević, he was actually in the election race only to get seats on the polling stations responsible for counting votes, and that they were close to the SNSD.
None of them were available for comment to the BBC.
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