General Elections Started in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Biometric Systems Are Used

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 Republika Srpska (RS), one of the two entities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, will vote to elect the President and vice presidents of the RS and the members of the 10 cantonal assemblies in the FBiH.

Voters started to go to the polls to determine the names of those who will serve in the government in Brcko, which has a special status. As the most important innovation of the election, biometric voter verification, ballot scanning and video surveillance systems are used in all approximately 4,500 polling stations. Voters have their fingerprints scanned after their identity check. Voting is still done with paper ballots, and voters scan them one by one before throwing them into the ballot box.

RESULTS WILL BE ANNOUNCED EARLY

The first results are planned to be announced at 20.00 after the ballots are scanned and the data is transmitted directly to the Central Election Commission (CIK). In previous elections, the first results were usually announced around 23:00.

Candidates competing 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 for Serbian membership; Darijana Filipovic, Zdenko Lucic and Slaven Kovacevic are also fighting for Croatian membership. 12 candidates are competing for the RS Presidency. Voters mark only one candidate on this ballot, and the candidate with the most votes becomes the president. The election race is expected to be between Savo Minic and Branko Blanusa.