In your opinion, are the October elections an opportunity for the country to move forward on its path towards membership of the EU?

Nadira Berbić,  Zenica

I believe that the elections in October do not represent an opportunity for BiH to make progress towards membership of the EU. Political candidates more or less come from the same circles as in the last elections and with the same intentions, and progress towards the EU is not one of them. Unfortunately, the older generation that makes up the majority of the electorate continue to vote for the parties they have always voted for in the past. Only the minority of the younger generation will vote, and most of them will unfortunately either not vote at all or have left the country. Talented youth who could have made a difference locally have been lured by attractive opportunities abroad. In addition, our generation, the youth, has simply never experienced something different from what we have now, something better. As a result, it is hard for us to gather our energies to fight for something we have never even experienced. Those among us who have experienced a better life somewhere at some time have no motivation to stay here. Members of local communities spend most of their money on putting bread on the table and occasionally on entertainment, what I call investment in “bread and circuses”. As a result, we have a charmed circle where everyone simply struggles to maintain the status quo and at the same time tries to lead a decent and modest life.

Adna Bašić,  Sarajevo

I do not think that the elections in October are an opportunity to change anything and to move forward towards the European Union. We will only move forward when a revolution happens and the whole system is built up again from scratch. Given our habits of helplessness and apathy, there will be no revolution anytime soon, and consequently no speeding up along the path towards membership of the European Union.

Edina Ferizović, Bihać

I don’t think that these elections represent an opportunity for BiH to move forward on the path to EU membership. The political situation is still too fragile for any progress in this direction. It will take years to repair the mistakes made by bad leaders. People choose leaders by looking at their names (are they Muslim origin, or Serbian origin or Croatian origin) making the mistake of thinking that only leaders from the same ethnic group can help them. Moreover, the recent floods set us back and not forwards towards membership. Look at the subsequent unrest that started on 4th February 2014 in Tuzla and quickly spread to cities across BiH, including Sarajevo, Zenica, Mostar, Jajce and other cities. And what happened then? After the excitement of the unrest, everyone again became passive and cynical, realising that they really cannot change anything.

Europa.ba