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Ladies and Gentlemen, 

I would like to give you a short update on recent changes in the Rules and Regulations of the Provisional Election Commission (PEC) and outline the most important new features applying to the November general elections. 

First of all, it should be mentioned that all newly adopted provisions are in accordance with European and international standards. 

The system of multi-member constituencies establishes geographically defined regions for the election of a number of representatives to the BiH House of Representatives, the BiH Federation House of Representatives, and the Republika Srpska National Assembly. 

	Nedzida Salihovic National Legal Advisor, Provisional Election  Commission

Multi-member constituencies permit citizens to directly connect with the candidates that represent their constituencies, and increase the accountability between the voters and the candidates, thereby raising the incentives for elected representatives to be responsive to the needs of voters. 

Another new feature involves money and campaigning. Democratic politics cannot proceed without funding. Political parties would be unable to organise themselves, politicians could not communicate with the public, and election campaigns would not even begin without funds to pay for them. Therefore, political funding is not only indispensable; it is also desirable. Campaign finance regulation is a difficult endeavour in most democracies. The first lesson is that there is no simple solution to these difficulties. 

The newly adopted PEC Rules and Regulations provide for campaign finance reform, which includes a spending ceiling of one convertible mark (km) per voter for each campaign in each electoral race. 

All political parties, coalitions and independent candidates must submit detailed financial records before and after the elections. While no regulation can identify all sources of campaign contributions and all campaign expenditures, the initial goal is to reveal the more significant contributors and contributions and help build a culture of financial transparency. 

".... a spending ceiling of one convertible mark per voter
 for each campaign in each electoral race." 

Another new feature is the preferential voting principle, which permits voters to rank candidates for the Republika Srpska Presidential election. 

Voters can rank as many candidates as they wish on the ballot paper by placing the number '1', '2', etc. next to the candidate of their choice. If a candidate gains an absolute majority of first preference votes - 50 percent plus one vote - he/she is immediately declared elected. If no candidate has a majority of first preferences, the ballots of the eliminated candidate will be tranferred to the 2nd preferences (i.e. candidates with number 2 netx to them) expressed by those voters. Ballots without 2nd preferences will simply be disregarded in this particular counting. This process is repeated until one candidate has attained an overall majority (for more information please see presentation on preferential voting system). 

Finally, I would like to say a few words on the open list system, which should be familiar to all of you by now. Voters can choose among individual candidates on a political party or coalition list. A voter has a choice: he/she can vote for a political party or coalition, and accept the election of candidates from that list in the order that the list has proposed, or express support for any number of candidates on the list of only one party or coalition. 

Voting for a number of candidates on the list of candidates has the effect of changing the order in which candidates are elected from the candidate list. It is not possible to vote for candidates on more than one party or coalition candidate list. A ballot filled out in this manner is considered invalid. Whether a voter casts a vote for a political party or coalition, or for a number of candidates on the list, that ballot counts as one vote for the party or coalition. 

The PEC Rules and Regulation for the November election will be adopted in the beginning of June. 

You may obtain additional information about the new PEC Rules and Regulation either by contacting the PEC/OSCE office, phone: 292 100 or by accessing the OSCE web site at: www.oscebih.org).