Photo: Pixabay

As Bosnia’s politicians prepare for parliamentary and presidential elections in October this year, many of them are wooing voters with promises of big pay hikes.

The government of Bosnia’s Serb-dominated entity, Republika Srpska, RS, has said it will take measures to increase salaries in the entity, with strong support from the RS President, Milorad Dodik.

“Anyone who is well intentioned can only praise these activities, there is nothing to take away from this, just add praise. This is good news … the minimal average salary will be 450 euros [a month],” Dodik said on June 24.

Dodik, head of the ruling Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, SNSD, is the party’s candidate for the Serbian seat on Bosnia’s tripartite presidency.

At the same time, RS Prime Minister Zeljka Cvijanovic, also from the SNSD, who will run for the post of RS President instead of Dodik, has promised that minimum salaries will rise by 12.5 per cent, making the lowest salary 250 euros instead of 200.

Politicians are also promising better times and higher wages in the mainly Bosniak and Croat entity, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

“Our goal is to have a million in employment in 2026. The promises we have made so far have been realised in full, despite all the doubters and those who were trying to undermine the promises we made in 2014,” Sefik Dzaferovic, candidate for the Bosniak seat on the Bosnian Presidency, said on June 23.

Dzaferovic is vice-president of the main Bosniak party, the Party of Democratic Action, SDA. If he wins the Bosniak seat on the Presidency, he will replace Bakir Izetbegovic, the president of SDA – who in May promised average salaries of 700 euros.

The main opposition Social Democratic Party, SDP, meanwhile, has put forward its “Plan 10”, which incudes increasing the average salary to some 600 euros.

“In the next five years, the SDP will raise the minimum wage to the present average salary of some 400 euros, and we will raise the average salary to at least 600 euros,” Enver Bijedic, from the SDP, told a press conference in May during the presentation of the plan.

Most political analysts dismiss the pledges as completely unrealistic, noting also that pre-election promises tend to be forgotten quickly in Bosnia.

“They are promising different things that they are unlikely to be able to fulfil, while we also have a situation in which candidates for posts on the Presidency are promising things that are not even under the jurisdiction of this body,” Ivana Maric, a Sarajevo-based political analyst, told BIRN.

Bosnia’s average salary is just over 400 euros net, according to the official data, while 458,355 Bosnians are unemployed, data from the Agency for the statistic of Bosnia, show.

Read more:

Attacks on Election Commission Threaten Bosnian Election

How Rich Are the Balkans’ Top Politicians?

Pressure Mounts on Bosnia to Change Electoral Law