Bosnia and Herzegovina general election, 2006

The Bosnia and Herzegovina general election of 2006 occurred on October 1, 2006. The 2006 general election decided the makeup of Bosnia and Herzegovina's presidency as well as federal, entity, and cantonal governments. As of September 2006 there were 2,736,886 registered voters (Note: Of the 2.7 million voters, 1.7 millions are in the BiH Federation and 1 million in the Republic of Srpska.) [ [http://www.electionguide.org/election.php?ID=1047 IFES Election Guide - Election Profile for Bosnia and Herzegovina ] ] Official voter turnout as reported by the Central Election Commission was 52.74% of the total number of registered voters. [http://www.ihf-hr.org/viewbinary/viewdocument.php?doc_id=7395]

tate Presidency

One President was elected from each of the country's three constitutional peoples: Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs.

tate Parliament

On the state level, a new Parliamentary Assembly will be elected, which includes:

=House of Representatives=

According to the constitution of BiH, the representatives from the Federation of BiH are allocated 28 seats, while the representatives from the Republika Srpska have 14 seats. There are 42 seats in total.

Seats

*SDA 9
*SBiH 8
*SNSD 7
*SDP 5
*SDS 3
*HDZ-HNS 3
*HDZ 1990 2
*PDP RS 1
*BPS 1
*DNS 1
*DNZ 1
*Radom za Boljitak 1

=House of Peoples=

The 15 members of the House of Peoples will be elected in entities' Parliaments - 10 members by the House of Representatives of the Parliament of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (5 Bosniaks and 5 Croats); and 5 members by the National Assembly of the Republika Srpska.

Entity Parliaments

On the entity level, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republika Srpska will elect new governments.

Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina

In the Federation this includes:
*Prime Minister of the Federation
*Federation House of Representatives
*Federation House of Peoples

House of Representatives of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Final Results of the October 1, 2006 general election; only parties which have won mandates are listed

"Reg." - Mandates from regional electoral units; "Com." - Mandates from compensation lists
Source - [http://www.izbori.ba Central Electoral Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina]

Republika Srpska

In the Republika Srpska, the government is made up of:
*Prime Minister of Republika Srpska
*President (Serb) and vice-presidents (Croat and Bosniak) of Republika Srpska
*National Assembly of the Republika Srpska

National Assembly of the Republika Srpska

*SNSD 44.95 %
*SDS 18.99 %
*PDP 7.13 %
*DNS 4.22 %
*SP 3.70 %
*SRS 3.02 %

Seat allocation:
*SNSD 41
*SDS 17
*PDP RS 8
*DNS 4
*SBiH 4
*SP 3
*SDA 3
*SRS RS 2
*SDP 1

Canton Parliaments

All 289 mandates in the assemblies of the Cantons of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina were up for election; interestingly, the same parties elected into the Federal Parliament were elected onto cantonal assemblies ("skupština kantona" in Bosnian, "sabor županije" in Croatian and "скупштина кантона" in Serbian).

Source - [http://www.izbori.ba Central Electoral Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina]

Importance of the elections

Many analysts claimed that the 2006 election would be the most important since Bosnia's independence from Yugoslavia, and the subsequent Bosnian War. With the previous government failing to agree reforms to the constitution, and Bosnian Muslim politicians continuing to threaten the abolition of the Republika Srpska and officials in Republika Srpska continuing to speak of possible secession from the country in response, the election was seen as crucial in determining the future of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The results were tentatively welcomed by commentators, and described as bringing "small signs of change to a Bosnia where institutional fragmentation has cemented ethnic division", with the result suggesting "a certain retreat of nationalism among the Muslim and Croat communities". [Nicholas Walton, [http://www.opendemocracy.net/conflict-yugoslavia/bosnia_elections_3959.jsp A house divided: Bosnia after the elections] , openDemocracy, 3 October 2006, accessed 25 November 2006]

Election controversy

A controversy has emerged over the election of the Croatian member of presidency. Although Željko Komšić is an ethnic Croat, as a member of the SDP he was alleged by his political opponents to have received votes mainly from Bosniaks. He has been accused by his opponents that he was not the choice of Croats, but rather Bosniaks, citing that he did not win majority for Croatian representative in any of the counties/cantons with Croat majority. This is the result of the fact that in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, both Bosniak and Croat presidents are on one ballot, letting the voter choose to vote in either category regardless of their own ethnicity.

References

External links

* [http://www.izbori.ba Bosnian Electoral Commission] official site
* [http://www.wrmea.com/archives/December_2006/0612032.html Bosnia’s “Historic” Elections: The Usual Tensions, Plus a Seed of Hope] , "Washington Report on Middle East Affairs", December 2006