Bosnian Serb voters on Sunday elected an ally of their dismissed leader Milorad Dodik to replace him, preliminary results indicated, in a snap vote intended to settle months of political turbulence.

Dodik was ejected from office in August following his conviction for ignoring rulings by Christian Schmidt, the international appointee who oversees a peace deal which has held Bosnia together since the end of its 1990s inter-ethnic war.

The conflict left the country split into two semi-autonomous halves -- the Serb-run Republika Srpska (RS) and a Bosniak-Croat federation -- linked by weak central institutions.

Sunday's vote was seen as a crucial test of support for Dodik's nationalist SNSD party, which has been in power for nearly two decades in the Bosnian Serb statelet.

The electoral commission published results showing that with votes counted from nearly 93 percent of polling stations, Sinisa Karan led with 50.9 percent of the vote, ahead of his challenger Branko Blanusa on 47.8 percent.

"Today's election was won by our candidate Sinisa Karan. That is unquestionable," Dodik told supporters at his nationalist party's headquarters in Banja Luka.

Karan, a 63-year-old former interior minister, is a close ally and personal choice of Dodik, who remains head of his party, the Union of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD).

The winner will serve for less than a year before a general election in October 2026.

'Two Dodiks'

"I see this personally as support for me as well, in almost impossible circumstances," Dodik said late Sunday.

"They wanted to remove Dodik through an entirely unfair political process... and now they ended up with two Dodiks. They will be seeing that every day."

The turnout was less than 36 percent, the central electoral commission said -- significantly lower than the 53 percent in the 2022 vote.

Around 1.2 million eligible voters could choose between six candidates, but Karan and Blanusa of the main opposition party were the two favourites.

The Serb Democratic Party (SDS) selected the relatively unknown Blanusa, a 56-year-old electrical engineering professor, who has repeatedly levelled corruption allegations against Dodik and his party.

Corruption allegations

The poll followed clashes between Dodik and the top international envoy Schmidt, which analysts said pushed the country to the brink of its worst political crisis since the 1992-1995 war ended.

Earlier this year, Dodik was convicted and banned from public office for six years for flouting Schmidt's decisions.

After months of defying the ruling, the 66-year-old leader, who has close ties to the Kremlin, suddenly accepted his removal in October.

Within days, the United States dropped sanctions against Dodik and several of his associates, which had been in place since 2017. Karan, under sanctions since January, was among them.

"The Serb people have now given a decisive answer: 'No' to any foreigner, 'No' to anyone who seeks to usurp the will of the Serb people," Karan told his supporters in Banja Luka late Sunday.

Pensioner Milan Golja said he voted for Karan because he wanted Dodik's policies to continue.

"This is a big Western-made farce... Dodik has the support of the people," he told AFP in the city of Laktasi.

During the campaign, Blanusa said Dodik's policies threatened the future of the Bosnian Serb entity and accused him of corruption.

For historian and diplomat Slobodan Soja, there was no clear"ideological" difference between the two leading contenders, whom he labelled"unpopular, selfish and irresponsible".

Meanwhile, Dodik's"power remains intact and will only grow over time, as he is simply all-powerful as long as he leads the party", Soja said.

Voter Dragoslav Milanovic, 66, voiced hope that the vote will calm the crisis.

"The chaos here is not helping anyone," he told AFP.