>> this is al jazeera and these are the top stories now. russian president vladimir putin is finalizing his lands to annex four ukrainian regions. the upper house of parliament has approved legislation which now heads to him for his final signature. ukraine's president says troops are making rapid and powerful progress against russian forces in the south and east. vladimir zelenskyy says dozens of villages have been liberated in the past week. south korea and the u.s. have carried out bombing drills in

response to a missile launch by north korea. the missile went over japanese territory, prompting international condemnation. we have more from washington, d.c.. reporter: now there is a ratcheting up of u.s. engagement in the region. you have got the secretary of defense calling his counterpart in japan and in south korea. you have the national security advisor, all speaking to their counterparts, and to top it all off, president biden making a phone call to the japanese prime minister in the wake of this launch. there is a lot of focus from the biden administration on these events, pushing for an urgent u.n. security council meeting. these lunches, the u.s. insists must stop, otherwise it will ratchet up its reactions, as we have seen in these massive exercises that have been conducted in the wake of the latest launch. >> billionaire elon musk has agreed to go ahead with his original plan to write twitter

for $44 billion. it comes ahead of the trail in which twitter was set to seek an order forcing him to close the purchase. in the u.k., an inquest has opened into the death of an unarmed black man chart the police in south london. the 24-year-old was shot through the windscreen of a car in september. and columbia's government says it will restart peace talks with a leftist rebel group next month. talks between the eln, and former president event ok's government broke down in 2019. those are the headlines. the news continues here on al jazeera after "inside story rule do stay with us. -- after "inside story." do stay with us. ♪

hazem: which direction will bus near take after its election? it is the vote will reach ethnic divides in this broken country. but with it are still bearing the scars of civil war in the 1990's, is change possible? what role outside powers play? this is "inside story." ♪ hello and welcome to the program. i am hazem sika. the luminary results from elections in bosnia-herzegovina on sunday show the reformist and moderates winning the croat and bosnian presidential seats. but overall, the outcome is unlikely to bring much change nor movement and entrenched

visions in the country. the vote was held to elect three members of the shared presidency across national and regional parliaments. the serb seat remains unclear, with both candidates claiming victory. the campaign was dominated by nationalist and separatist rhetoric, and is seen as the most important vote since the end of the war in 1995. our correspondent has more from sarajevo. reporter: bosnia and herzegovina have spoken. two of the three seats have gone to reformists and moderate candidates. separatist serb candidate has won the presidential seat for the republic. both bosnian and croat winners called for unity and the need to move forward. >> the lives of our people in this country are most important. that is why i call for all people to unite so that the citizens of bosnia and herzegovina will be better off. >> congratulations to all citizens of bosnia for this victory of my party and myself. now we can really talk about big

changes in bosnia. reporter: but the evening was overshadowed by the high representative for bosnia. as polls closed, he announced he would be making changes to the constitution, electoral law, and to the size of the lower parliament. >> no political party or anybody elected will be able to hold the federation hostage anymore. reporter: the fear was if it croat separatist candidate was elected, it would increase tensions. it would have given two-thirds of the presidency control over specific state institutions. one separatist leader declared victory for the presidency of the serb republic. >>. >> i am proud i was the candidate. and i are now confirmed president of the republic of serbska. i will do everything to make sure the republic continues to be stable, to conduct its own

policy, to cooperate with partners like russia, serbia, hungary. reporter: the lowest which turnout since after the war ended in 1985. >> i voted. that is my duty. but there is no change for the people. it's just a rotation. >> every change is good. if good people are leading, no matter if they aren't red, yellow, white or blue. if it's good for the country. >> change will take a good deal of effort from all political parties. reporter: politicians in the federation of bosnia and herzegovina faced the same challenges as before elections. they still have to contend with two separatist serb presidents, and although it may be consolation that the separatist was not elected, constitutional and electoral law changes are also being imposed on them by someone bosnians did not work for. -- did not report for. hazem: bosnia's elections are among the most complicated in the world, set up to maintain

peace following the breakup of yugoslavia in 1992 and the civil war to follow. at state level, it has a three-way presidency, with each member elected to represent one of three ethnic groups. it is split between eastern orthodox serbs, catholic croats, and muslim bar snacks. representatives can block legislation passed by the lower house if they feel it is against the interest of their group. that is a part of the system often blamed for a lack of progress in the country. one body also oversees the political factions. the office of the high representative is an international initiative put in place in 1995 to ease ethnic divides. critics say it takes power away from the people, will supporters credit it would helping keep the country together. ♪ let's bring in our guests now to talk more about this. in the bosnian capital survey of

oh, hikmet karcic, an academic and author. in berlin we have bodo weber, senior associate at democratization policy council. and joining us in bosnia, amna popovac, political activist and member of the "women waging peace network." good to have you with us. hikmet karcic, let me start by asking you, what the results of the selection represent to you? guest: firstly to say that it is really good that the moderates and reformist forces have won in the presidency. that isn't the case in the parliament, where nationalist parties won a majority of the vote, but in the presidency, what was important was that these forces won, especially in the bosnian and croat members of

the presidency. however, it is troubling that the serb member of the presidency which belongs to a pro-russian serb separatist party. what is troubling for me personally is that the bosnian, e.u. and nato pact could be endangered by having someone like this in the presidency. in other areas of the federation in the country level, we have seen a lot of changes in the sense that some smaller parties have won, some majority of the votes. so a lot of things might be slightly changed in the sense of internal politics. but when talking about the state 's representation and so on, it is good that pro bosnian forces are still a majority in the presidency. hazem: bodo weber, what do you take from these results? guest: i would draw attention

away from the results, which i think the context is important, that the political and electoral system in bosnia's remaining more or less unchanged since the end of the war, is not a competitive western democracy. it is a system based on the alliance of three ethnic oligarchies. partial shift happening from election to election, moving in some percentage over to multiethnic parties, does not and cannot lead to change. i think in that sense, we have not seen a major change in the election. the one thing he mentioned that is important, the current geopolitical ukraine were context is that the nationalist, pro-russian forces, starting with the serb party member, and

the croat allies, will not have a majority in the 3-member presidency that sets foreign policy. but apart from that really, i would not overstress the results. the main event, from my point of view, and these elections happened one hour after closing the bell -- after closing the ballot boxes in bosnia on sunday, was the imposition by the high representative of a dangerous precedent imposition of changes to the electoral system, one hour after the polls were closed. the timing was contrary undemocratic. it is really dangerously going into the wrong direction. hazem: you are talking about the envoy, christine schmidt, and the changes he imposed, and what he said were measures for improving the functionality of

government in bosnia. we can talk more about that in a moment, but i want to get amna popovac's take on the results and what you draw from this. is this a victory for the state -- status quo? or is there more to it? guest: as my colleagues before said, it is -- inside of bosnia-herzegovina is more status quo. not a big change. same parties from the 1990's, even from 1996, who won the elections, they still continue to win the elections and they are the biggest coalition. they support each other and they will continue to work inside of the country the same. we might see some improvements in the foreign policy, thanks to these two pro-civilian, no nationalistic members of the presidency. we still have this one

pro-russian and nationalistic member of the presidency, but i think that she will not be able to do a lot of harm as was done before her. so i expect more movement in bosnia-herzegovina from east over to the west. from russia and turkey, people should be returned. this is what i expect to see in the next four years. the speech that the social democrats, and the announcement of his victory, was very good. it was very healing for everybody who lived here in bosnia-herzegovina and loves this country. there are still croats and bosnians who love this country and want to continue their lives here. so there is a glimpse of hope.

not such a big, but still, a small glimpse of hope for the people in this country seeing these members of the presidency. everyday life will not be such a different, but we will see outside of what we have experienced, some improvement. this is what we expect to see here. hazem: let's talk more, then, about this decision by the high representative christian schmidt, to make changes to the way that the country is governed , in the way that one side cannot act as a veto or a block on the other. a point was made by our correspondent there in the report that these changes are being made by someone who was not elected by bosnians. is that a problem for you, hikmet karcic? guest: well, it is in one way, but what is more shocking is that in this way, ethnic-baltics

will be cemented in the future. that means in four years time, we will know directly which party will win the elections, and croat-separatist party. that is the problem here. instead of going forward, the high representative has decided to even more dip in and cement the already existing political and ethnic divides and to have some sort of ethnicized politics instead of much more european. instead of european values wrote into the election, we have a much higher bureaucracy right now. . the house of peoples, for example, will be double the size it is now. we will have more politicians in power, which means more public funds being wasted on that. secondly, we will be able to blockade certain political

decisions. to be very frank, it will just harden the lives of bosnians in the future. hazem: bodo weber, to pick up on what you said earlier about the role of the high representative the,re -- the high representative there, christian schmidt, there are those who will not disagree with you on the point that it is supposed to be a democracy, and this is a flaw in that system. but is it a necessary flaw in the sense that it ensures that the deep divisions in the country don't love her? that there is -- don't spill over? that there is a level playing field that remains? guest: i think -- the problem here is that this is part of the problem, this wrong way of

intervening by the high representative. it gives ammunition to actors in the west and the east, starting with russia when they see that the very institution of the high representative should be gone. this is not the solution. the problem is the following. it was stopped by a agreement with the domestic warring factions by installing and electoral system that is based on ethnic power-sharing. this is not democratic. this was meant to be provisional government and constitutional arrangement to end the war, to be later replaced by a democratic, functional political system. the problem was that the west, for three quarters of a decade after the war, has not properly reformed and changed that system, until 2005. they were trying to run away from their responsibility and

trying to leave the country and sustainable --unsustainable. it has thrown back the country to the original mode of mutual lifting of ethnic tension as a basis for patronage system, mutually reinforcing ethnic oligarchy system. instead of correcting its course, the west for the last 17 years has been trying to seize responsibility, to keep a semblance of a fixed -- fake ability in bosnia by abusing elites and their agendas. the problem has escalated in the last few years with low-level e.u. and u.s. officials whipping out pbs redlands when it comes to the defense of democratic principles in -- wiping out previous redlands when it comes to the defense of democratic principles in bosnia.

calling for reform of the electoral system. the negotiations did not lead to a result. because the other side, particularly bosnians, saw it for what it is. it would lead to the formalizing of the ethnic division in bosnia that would ultimately lead to a breakup of the country. as a result of these failed negotiations, by having propped up and encouraged the croat nationalist side, we have entered an election where the croat nationalist party threatened with a political crisis after the elections, preventing implementation of the election results if their agenda is not met. they believed the u.s. administration, which is continuing a more trump policy than a burden policy. it has pushed mr. schmidt to partly give in, to make some decisions that take away the tools for the htz to do a

package of implementation of election results and prevent a crisis, in return for partly giving in to their nationalist demands. he has tried to do it in the midst of the election campaign, which would have meant changing the rules of the game within the campaign, which is deeply undemocratic. he has done the worst of both worlds. he has done it even after the citizens of bosnia, one hour after they finished putting their vote, which means this is both undemocratic, and it is not leading to more democracy. it is leading to a more oligarchic system. hazem: let's get amna popovac's take on this, and the role of christian schmidt here. is it fundamentally and democratic, a way of just appearing over the cracks and appeasing too many people, particularly nationalist groups, as bodo weber says? guest: it is.

but unfortunately, his powers are written in the peace agreements. there is nothing we can do at the moment. the people of bosnia-herzegovina, the majority of them like to have some office like that. now it is mr. schmidt, before it was the other person. we like to have the office of the high representative, simply because nationalistic parties would destroy this country much faster without it. nationalistic parties are those parties, ruling parties for the last 30 years. they are the same ones who participated and won the first multiparty elections when bosnia-herzegovina proclaimed independence. they won again in 1990 six, and

from 1996, they are winning elections. we can't expect from the same people who were politically active before the war, who were active during the war, active during the signing of the peace agreement that some of them were involved in the negotiations, and now they are ruling this country. so how we can expect them to make any change? they don't want to do any change, they want to keep the status quo as long as decibel so that -- as long as possible. so that is why we need the office of high representative to bring in some changes. some changes we like, some changes we don't. there are a lot of laws in bosnia-herzegovina that are not implemented. mr. schmidt's decision about changing election law and partially changing of the constitutional duration of bosnia-herzegovina, let's see how it will work in real life.

let's give it a chance, whether it will block or gain more in a new system. he pulled some wheels from their cars. so let's see how it will work. i personally don't like that we have patronage over bosnia-herzegovina. that means we are not democratic and not a democratic country, we just think we are. we have elections, but we are not sure that the numbers that are published after the elections are real numbers that people voted. now there is a big question in one of the republics whether the candidate won the elections or the voting machines won the

elections. there is a big discussion now of who really won the elections in that republic. for me, it is also a big question why he didn't run for a second mandate as a member of the presidency, because his colleague, she won perfectly. so, there is a big question why he decided to run just for the president for half of the country. hazem: let's talk more about what this means for foreign policy. hikmet, we touched on this earlier, but what do you think these elections mean for foreign policy and the various factions within the country, you mentioned pro-russian functions and pro-western factions -- pro-russian factions and pro-western factions. guest: the most troubling part

for me is that two countries supported the serb nationalist separatist movement. that is viktor orban from hungary, and vladimir putin from russian. if these are the two people with whom dodic met several weeks before the elections, that is very troubling news. because we have one country which is a member of the e.u. which is entirely in the far right sphere, hungary and viktor orban movement. on the other side we have a country which is currently involved in an act of aggression and war crimes, and that is russia. we are right now entering a new phase in which probably the serb president will start doing what he has been progressing his voters for a long time and that is, with the support of serbia, to try and proclaim independence for the bosnian-serb entity, the

republic, and to secede in the near future. what is important is that the election law which was imposed by christian schmidt was something which was heavily lobbied by croatia proper. the last couple of years, croatians have been lobbying different countries, mostly in the united states and in the west, to support an election law which would cement the power-sharing atmosphere in bosnia, and unfortunately, this has happened two nights earlier. which means that bosnia will, in the future be controlled not only by its neighbors, croatia and belgrade, but also deeply influenced by russia, hungary and other countries in the world. hazem: all right, will have to leave it there. thank you very much to all three

of you, hikmet karcic, bodo weber, and amna popovac. and thank you as well for watching. remember, you can see this program again any time. just go to our website aljazeera.com. , for further discussion, go to our facebook page. that's facebook.com/ajinsidestory. you can also join the conversation on twitter. our handle is at @ajinsidestory. for me, adrian finighan, and the -- for me, hazem sika and the whole team here, bye for now. ♪

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