Bosnia's Ailing Social Democrats Re-Elect Leader

Niksic, the SDP's former secretary general and leader for the past year, was re-elected as party president for the next four years in polls on Sunday.

"This is a great victory, not only for the SDP but for Bosnia and Herzegovina as well," Niksic told a press conference on Sunday night.

Out of around 28,000 registered SDP members, some 20,000 of them turned out to vote and Niksic won close to 70 per cent of votes, followed by Tuzla mayor Jasmin Imamovic with around 20 per cent.

Niksic pledged to keep the multi-ethnic SDP open to all and to unite Bosnia's leftist parties. This mostly referred to the Democratic Front, DF, party that was established by one of the former senior SDP leaders, Zeljko Komsic. Komsic left the SDP in 2012 and formed the DF the year afterwards.

Sunday's elections were intended to consolidate the party after its catastrophic defeat in last year's elections.

For many years SDP was seen as Bosnia's strongest multi-ethnic party, which many local and international experts hoped would transform the country.

In the 2010 elections, the SDP became the single strongest party in Bosnia, but four years later lost more than 80 per cent of its voters due to its leadership and policies, which were perceived as egocentric, corrupt and arrogant.

Although the DF was established less than a year before the 2014 elections, it surpassed SDP and became the leading multi-ethnic party in the country.

Facing internal pressure, Zlatko Lagumdzija - who led the SDP for the previous 17 years - stepped down at the end of 2014.

Niksic, one of Lagumdzija's closest associates, was elected for a year, during which he was supposed to spearhead the party's restructuring.

During this period, the SDP reviewed its...