There are a little more than two weeks left until the general elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The first half of the official campaign showed a familiar political matrix. According to analysts, instead of concrete solutions to pressing economic problems, political actors mostly continue to rely on proven national themes and populist rhetoric.
According to analysts, the current election campaign is uninventive and focused on national identity and sentiment, while, as before, it deals less with issues of citizens’ living standards.
In the focus of the national theme
Communication specialist Mladen Bubonjić states that, fortunately, there have been no serious physical incidents in the course of the campaign so far, as happened in previous election cycles.
When it comes to the programs of political parties, he assesses that citizens do not get enough explanations about how specific program intentions would be implemented.
“For now, we can note that, fortunately, there were no serious physical incidents, as we know that happened in previous election cycles. When it comes to the programs themselves, I would say that the citizens themselves do not expect too many explanations and clarifications of how the parties intend to implement certain programs. So we can see that there are programmatic intentions, but not fully defined and explained programs,” said Bubonjić.
Social networks have become a dominant channel
Compared to earlier campaigns, a significant part of political communication has moved to the Internet. There are fewer large party tribunes in halls, while political messages to voters are increasingly being sent via social networks.
Politicians respond to each other’s name-calling through the same channels.
Semir Hambo, editor of the Klix portal, points out that the approach has largely remained the same, but that the candidate’s presence on social networks is noticeably stronger.
“We are looking at an established approach, with the fact that I would perhaps emphasize that in this election campaign the presence on social networks is a little more intensified. It has always been, however, now individual candidate campaigns use social networks much more,” Hambo said.
The tightening of rhetoric before the elections
As voting day approaches, political rhetoric is expected to intensify. Analysts, however, do not expect significant deviations from previous political communication.
Political analyst Marko Lucović believes that the intensification and radicalization of rhetoric could be especially pronounced right before the elections.
“As the campaign progresses and as the elections on October 4 approach, this radicalization will be especially strong so that it reaches its peak just before the elections. I repeat again, everything has already been seen before, so there will not be too much of a deviation compared to past election processes,” said Lucović.
The political race is about to enter the final stage. Whether the last weeks of the campaign will bring changes in the topics and messages of political actors, and what the voters’ response will be, will be known after the vote on October 4, BHRT writes.
