General Election Process and Innovations in Bosnia and Herzegovina
3.4 million voters go to the polls in the general elections organized by the Central Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Quick Look
- 3.4 million voters in Bosnia and Herzegovina go to the polls to elect presidential council members and local council representatives.
- The aim is to announce the results earlier by using biometric verification and scanner systems for the first time in the elections.
AI-generated summary
Why It Matters
General elections are held every four years in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The country is governed by a presidential council based on a complex system of ethnic representation.
According to the information on the official website of the Central Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina (CIK), 3 million 414 thousand 364 voters will be able to vote in the election.
Voters will elect Bosniak, Serb and Croat members of the Presidential Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In addition, the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina at the state level, the House of Representatives of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH), the National Assembly of the Republika Srpska (RS), one of the two entities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the President and vice presidents of the RS, and the members of the 10 cantonal assemblies in the FBiH will be elected. The 518 people who will take office will be determined directly by the public vote.
In Brcko, which has a special status, voters will go to the polls to determine the names of those who will serve in the government. CIK fully or partially approved the applications of 75 political parties and 4 independent candidates to participate in the general election, while allowing 29 coalitions to participate in the elections.
The candidates running for the Bosnian membership of the Presidential Council are Denis Becirovic, Bakir Izetbegovic, Semir Efendic and Fahrudin Radoncic. Zeljka Cvijanovic, Marinko Bozovic and Nebojsa Vukanovic are candidates for Serbian membership. Darijana Filipovic, Zdenko Lucic and Slaven Kovacevic will compete for Croatian membership.
12 candidates will compete for the RS Presidency. Voters will mark only one candidate on this ballot, and the candidate with the most votes will become president. The election race is expected to be between Savo Minic and Branko Blanusa.
Biometric verification and scanner will be used for the first time in the election
The most important innovation of the election will be the use of biometric voter verification, ballot scanning and video surveillance systems in all approximately 4,500 polling stations.
In the new system, voters will have their fingerprints scanned after their identity check. Voting will again be done with paper ballots, and voters will scan the ballots one by one before throwing them into the ballot box. Candidate names will be included in a separate annex, not on the ballot.
The first results are planned to be announced at 20.00 by scanning the compasses and transmitting the data directly to CIK. In previous elections, the first results were usually announced around 23:00.
Scanned ballots will also be counted by hand. CIK stated that if there is a big difference between the two counts, an additional check will be made and if the difference continues, the manual count will be accepted as the official result.
General elections are held every 4 years in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the election on October 2, 2022, Denis Becirovic was elected for the Bosnian membership of the Presidential Council, Zeljko Komsic for the Croatian membership and Zeljka Cvijanovic for the Serbian membership.
Open Questions
- What will be the impact of the election results on ethnic balances?
