Bosnia and Herzegovina votes to elect new leaders, lawmakers

Voting began on Sunday in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s general elections, with more than 3. 4 million registered voters casting ballots to elect new leadership and lawmakers at several levels of government. Polling stations opened at 7am local time and are scheduled to close at 7pm, according to the Central Election Commission (CIK). A total of 3, 414, 364 voters are eligible to vote in the elections, which are held every four years. Voters will elect the Bosniak, Croat and Serb members of the country’s three-member presidency, as well as members of the state-level Parliamentary Assembly. They will also elect lawmakers to the House of Representatives of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, one of the country’s two entities, while voters in Republika Srpska will elect members of its National Assembly. In addition, voters will choose the president and vice presidents of Republika Srpska and members of the 10 cantonal assemblies in the Federation. A total of 518 officials will be elected. Bosnia and Herzegovina has a complex political system established under the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement, which ended the 1992-1995 war. The country comprises the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska, along with the self-governing Brčko District. 10 candidates vie for three-member presidency Ten candidates are competing for the three seats on the presidency. Voters in the Federation can choose either a Bosniak or Croat member, while voters in Republika Srpska elect the Serb member. Incumbent Denis Becirovic, Bakir Izetbegovic, Semir Efendic and Fahrudin Radoncic are competing for the Bosniak seat. Darijana Filipovic, Zdenko Lucic and Slaven Kovacevic are running for the Croat seat, while incumbent Zeljka Cvijanovic, Marinko Bozovic and Nebojsa Vukanovic are contesting the Serb seat. Twelve candidates are also running for the presidency of Republika Srpska. The CIK has approved 75 political parties, 29 coalitions and four independent candidates, with more than 7, 000 candidacies registered across all levels of government. New voting technology deployed nationwide The elections also mark the first nationwide use of new technology aimed at improving voter identification, ballot counting and the transmission of results. Biometric voter verification, ballot scanners and video surveillance systems are being used at around 4, 500 polling stations. After their identities are checked, voters will undergo fingerprint verification. They will continue to cast paper ballots, which will be scanned before being placed in ballot boxes. Data from scanned ballots will be transmitted directly to the CIK, allowing preliminary and incomplete results to be announced at around 8pm, earlier than in previous elections. The ballots will also be counted manually. The election commission said additional checks would be conducted if there is a significant discrepancy between scanned and manually counted ballots. If the discrepancy remains, the manual count will be accepted as the official result.

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