Voters in Bosnia and Herzegovina chose a new parliament and three-person presidential council Sunday. Preliminary results showed that a UNC Charlotte technology professor finished fourth in voting for one of the three slots.
Mirsad Hadzikadic had taken a leave of absence from UNC Charlotte to return to his home country and stand for the presidential council seat reserved for Bosnian Muslims. He finished with 9.5 percent of the vote in the six-person race.
Hadzikadic told WFAE last week he supports closer integration with Europe. He said he did not expect to win, but hoped to influence discussions about the future of the country, which remains bitterly divided after a brutal war 25 years ago.
"The sense is that if this time nationalists win again that there might not be next elections, simply because the country might be going toward the path of disintegration," Hadzikadic said last week.
In fact, two of the three seats went to nationalists. Pro-Russian Serb nationalist Milorad Dodik won the Serb seat and Šefik Džaferović won the Bosnian Muslim seat, the election commission said.
The third presidential council seat went to a moderate, Croat Željko Komšić, who has previously served two terms. He beat Croat nationalist Dragan Čović.
Hadzikadic said last week he hopes to keep his movement going.
"Now I have to figure out, do you have to form a political party or can it be done otherwise," he said. "I'm thinking about Martin Luther King a lot these days because he influenced existing parties."
RELATED LINKS
2018 presidential election preliminary results, http://izbori.ba/