On Oct. 12, Bosnians headed to the polls to elect leaders to fill federal and regional government positions, including the three-member presidency. The results are scheduled to be released Oct. 13, but no matter who wins the positions, the new leaders will have a hard time enacting meaningful political change because of the country's complex bureaucratic system and deep-seated ethnic divisions. Past efforts to create ethnic balance have made decision-making complex and inefficient, undermining the country's prospects for economic development.
Unemployment hovers around 27 percent, and youth unemployment now approaches 60 percent. According to the World Bank, roughly one in five people in Bosnia-Herzegovina live in poverty. And according to the International Monetary Fund, the Bosnian economy will grow by a mere 0.7 percent this year. This stagnant growth is a representation of Bosnia-Herzegovina's struggle — shared by most of the former Yugoslavia — to transition its economy from a state-planned model to a free-market one. The reforms are difficult and often lead to social protests.
The European crisis worsened the economy, as remittances from Bosnians living abroad declined while prices on utilities and health care rose. Floods in the country in May dealt an additional blow to the Bosnian economy, inflicting roughly 2 billion euros' ($2.5 billion at current conversion rates) — about 15 percent of the country's gross domestic product — worth of damages.
In early February, people demanding better living conditions staged protests in several Bosnian cities (mostly in the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina). Notably, the protests were one of the rare occasions when complaints about the dire situation in the country overshadowed ethnic conflicts. Demonstrators demanded that politicians step down but succeeded in persuading only a handful of resignations before the protests faded away. However, despite the unifying effect economic concerns have had, Bosnia-Herzegovina's new leaders will still be considerably hindered by the persistent divisions between ethnic groups in the country — and by the complex bureaucracy such divisions have created.
