Main Bosnian Serb Opposition Party Re-Elects Leader

The Serb Democratic Party, SDS, chose Bosic to lead the party for another four years at its party congress on Sunday in Banja Luka. 

"We have to show that we have courage and that we can start the fight against corruption and crime which was carried out under the auspices of the political leadership of the current government in the [Serb-dominated entity of] Republika Srpska," Bosic said in his address to the SDS congress.

"Changes are necessary and we will try to get even stronger through the selection of the new leadership," he added.

In the last general elections, the SDS came close to defeating the entity's ruling Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, SNSD.

An SDS-led block of opposition parties won the Serb position in Bosnia's tripartite presidency and significantly strengthened its positions in the state parliament and the National Assembly of Republika Srpska, RS.

SNSD leader Milorad Dodik narrowly defeated SDS candidate Ognjen Tadic in the race for the presidency of RS, and the SNSD only managed to establish a ruling coalition in RS by buying off two MPs from opposing parties - a public scandal which is still shaking RS and is being investigated by the judiciary.

Meanwhile, the SDS-led block of Serb parties joined the main Bosniak and Croat parties in the ruling coalition at state level. In the past few years, the SDS has supported moderate positions and economic and social reforms, especially those required for the country's EU integration process.

This represents a huge change for the SDS, which was founded by the Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic in 1990, but since has gone through a series of democratic reforms.

The SDS was also the only party out of four main...