Ally of separatist leader Dodik leads election race for Bosnian Serb president

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SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — An ally of separatist Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik on Sunday was leading the presidential election in the Serb-run half of Bosnia, according to preliminary results released by the Bosnian election authorities.

The snap vote on Sunday in Republika Srpska was held after Dodik was removed from the presidential office over separatist policies that were stoking instability in the ethnically tense Balkan nation.

Dodik's ally Sinisa Karan won around 50% of the ballots while his main opponent Branko Blanusa won around 47%, with 92% of the votes counted.

Dodik was ousted in August after a Bosnian court convicted him of disobeying the orders of the international High Representative for Bosnia, sentenced him to a year in prison and banned him from holding any public office for six years. He has since paid a fine to avoid jail and stepped aside as president while staying at the helm of his governing Party of Independent Social Democrats.

Dodik on Sunday declared victory for Karan and lashed out at the proceedings that led to his ouster from the presidency.

“They wanted to bring down Dodik in an unfair process and now they got two Dodiks and they will watch us every day,” he said.

Karan added that “we will continue where we left off.”

Blanusa said Sunday night Karan was favored in the official media, although he said earlier in the day that the campaigns were carried out in a "fair and tolerant atmosphere.”

He said that “if there had not been for the manipulations I would have declared victory tonight.”

The office of the High Representative oversees the implementation of the 1995 peace agreement that ended the devastating war in Bosnia.

Bosnian Serbs are in charge of about one-half of Bosnia, which is called Republika Srpska. The other half is run jointly by Bosniaks, who are mainly Muslims and Croats. The two entities are bound together by a central administration.

Four more contenders took part in Sunday's race.

Bosnia’s complex political structure was established 30 years ago in a U.S.-brokered peace agreement to end a bloody 1992-95 ethnic conflict that killed more than 100,000 people and left millions homeless.

The war started when Bosnia declared independence from Yugoslavia and the country’s Serbs took up arms to carve up their own territory, hoping to join with neighboring Serbia. Dodik still advocates eventual separation of the Serb-controlled entity from Bosnia, which he has repeatedly declared unviable.

Dodik had faced U.S. and British sanctions for such policies. But the United States lifted the sanctions last month after Dodik agreed to step down. He also has repeatedly clashed with the international envoy overseeing the peace, Christian Schmidt, and declared his decisions illegal in Republika Srpska.

Dodik has actively taken part in Karan’s election campaign. He told voters that “I will remain with you to fight for our political goals" and Karan’s “victory will be my victory too."