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2.1. The Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and
Herzegovina
The Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina
consists of two houses: the House of Peoples and the House of Representatives.
The House of Peoples
The House of Peoples of BiH includes fifteen
delegates, two-thirds of whom come from the Federation (five Croat
and five Bosniaks) and one-third from the Republika Srpska (five
Serbs).
Each political party or coalition represented
in the House of Peoples of the Federation (entity level) has the
right to nominate a list of Bosniak and Croat candidates for the
election of delegates to the House of Peoples of BiH (state level).
Croat members of the House of Peoples of the Federation vote for
the Croat candidate list, and Bosniak members vote for the Bosniak
candidate list.
Each political party or coalition represented
in the National Assembly of the Republika Srpska has the right to
nominate a list of Serb candidates for the election of delegates
to the House of Peoples of BiH. Each candidate list should have
at least ten candidates and voting is secret.
Nine members of the House of Peoples of BiH
constitute a quorum, provided that at least three delegates from
each group are present.
BOX 1: 2001 BiH House of Peoples Delegates
|
No.
|
Entity
|
Ethnicity
|
List (Party)
|
|
1
|
RS
|
S
|
SDS
|
|
2
|
RS
|
S
|
PDP
|
|
3
|
RS
|
S
|
SNSD
|
|
4
|
RS
|
S
|
SPRS
|
|
5
|
RS
|
S
|
DNS
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
6
|
FBIH
|
B
|
SDP
|
|
7
|
District Brcko
|
B
|
SBIH
|
|
8
|
FBIH
|
B
|
GDS
|
|
9
|
FBIH
|
B
|
SDA
|
|
10
|
FBIH
|
B
|
SDA
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
11
|
FBIH
|
C
|
SDP
|
|
12
|
FBIH
|
C
|
SDP
|
|
13
|
FBIH
|
C
|
HSS
|
|
14
|
FBIH
|
C
|
NHI
|
|
15
|
FBIH
|
C
|
Radom
za boljitak1
|
The formation of the House of Peoples of BiH took place without
the participation of the HDZ. See annex 3 for detailed information
concerning the method of election of candidates to the House of
Peoples of BiH.
The House of Representatives of the Parliamentary
Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina
The House of Representatives of the Parliamentary
Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina consists of forty-two
members: registered voters in the Federation directly elected twenty-eight,
and registered voters in the Republika Srpska directly elected the
remaining fourteen.3
The mandate of the members is two years. Of
the twenty-eight members directly elected in the Federation, twenty-one
are elected from multi-member constituencies and seven are compensatory
mandates elected from the territory of the Federation as a whole.
Please see section 3.1 for more information about multi-member constituencies
and compensatory mandates.
Of the fourteen members directly elected in
the Republika Srpska, nine are elected from multi-member constituencies,
and five are compensatory mandates elected from the territory of
the Republika Srpska as a whole.
FIGURE 1: BiH House of Representatives 1998 and 2000 General
Elections (source: www.oscebih.org)
KCD, the coalition involving SDA, SBiH, Liberali and GDS, received
40% of the vote in 1998. This translated into seventeen mandates-just
five short of an absolute majority. The coalition did not run as
a coalition for elections in 2000, and only two of the four parties
achieved representation at the national level: SDA with 20% of the
vote and eight mandates and SBiH with 12% of the votes and five
mandates. DNZ received 2% of the vote and one mandate in 1998 and
maintained the same position in the 2000 elections.
SLOGA, a coalition of SNS, SNSD and SPRS, won
10% of the vote and four mandates in 1998. The coalition did not
exist in 2000, but the three parties managed to maintain their representation
with one mandate each; SNSD was in coalition with DSP. SDS went
from four mandates in 1998 to six mandates in 2000, partly because
of the ban on SRS in 1998.
HDZ went from six mandates in 1998 to five mandates
in 2000. NHI contested elections in 1998 in a coalition with HKDU
and took one mandate. NHI fought elections alone in 2000 but maintained
a mandate.
SDP more than doubled its representation in
the period;, it garnered 10% of the vote and four mandates in 1998
and 22% of the vote and nine mandates in 2000.
Two new parties entered the House of Representatives
in 2000: BiH Pensioners with 2% of the vote and one mandate and
PDP with 5% of the vote and two mandates.
Election statistics concerning the types of votes
cast is presented here.
TABLE 1: Elections Statistics 1998/2000 (source: www.oscebih.org)
|
Types of Votes
|
Valid 1998 and 2000
|
Invalid or Blank 1998 and 2000
|
Total 1998 and 2000
|
| Ordinary Fed |
797,548
|
779,796
|
54,031
|
50,974
|
851,579
|
830,743
|
| Ordinary RS |
573,744
|
508,889
|
49,908
|
40,341
|
623,682
|
549,230
|
| OCV |
158,292
|
95,130
|
12,048
|
2,330
|
170,346
|
97,460
|
| Absentee |
102,898
|
72,722
|
16,572
|
8,631
|
119,470
|
81,353
|
| Tendered |
93, 275
|
34,591
|
11,291
|
3,428
|
104,566
|
38,019
|
| Total |
1,725,793
|
1,491,101
|
143,850
|
105,704
|
1,869,643
|
1,596,805
|
It is strikingly clear that voter turnout has dropped significantly
between 1998 and 2000; however, the turnout can still be considered
high in comparison with many countries in Europe. The number of
registered voters in 2000 was 2,508,349 and the total turnout was
1,596,805, a 64% voter turnout. This was a 9% fall in voter turnout
from 1998 at which point it was approximately 70%. Also, as can
be seen in the table, fewer ballots were invalid or blank in 2000;
the number actually dropped almost 30%.4
The number of people voting in Republika Srpska
fell by 12% from 1998 to 2000; the number of voters in the Federation
fell only 2.5% in the same period.
Out-of-country votes (OCV) fell from 170,346
in 1998 to 97,460 in 2000, a fall representing more than 40%. It
is difficult to attribute this dramatic fall to a single factor.
In 1998 in Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) and Croatia, the
out-of-country votes operations were conducted in person and in
cooperation with authorities in FRY and Croatia, with polling stations
in Belgrade and Zagreb and other places. In April 2000, for the
municipal elections, out-of-country voting was handled by mail,
free of charge for voters in FRY and Croatia. For the 2000 general
elections in November the "free of charge" feature was removed and
voting in FRY and Croatia dropped significantly.
It is also likely that the factors contributing
to a decrease in the general voter turnout (high number of elections
in recent years, elections fatigue) is amplified for out-of-country
voters. Also, the enthusiasm of out-of-country voters is likely
to lessen with time, as it becomes more and more difficult to understand
what exactly is taking place in the political arena in BiH.
The number of out-of-country votes will probably
continue to fall in the coming years.
Tendered ballots also decreased, though not as
dramtically as suggested in the table. The total number of tendered
ballots in 2000 was 88,519 but only those cast by eligible voters
are indicated in the table. However, the fall in valid tendered
ballots is substantial as it is more than 60%. The reason for this
development is also difficult to pinpoint. It is not likely that
voters suddenly failed to understand the tendered ballot procedure.
Instead, it is more likely that the OSCE administration of the tendered
ballots and the checking procedure has been changed leaving less
room for ineligible voters to be recognized as eligible. Finally,
it should be mentioned that there has been a decrease in the number
of absentee ballots amounting to just over 30%.
BOX 2: A Few Facts from a Recent Global Voter Turnout Survey
- High turnout is not solely the property of established
democracies in the West. Of the top ten countries in the
1990s, only three were West European democracies.
- Turnout across the globe rose steadily between 1945 and
1990, increasing from 61% in the 1940s to 68% in the 1980s,
but post-1990 the average has dipped back to 64%.
- Since 1945, Western Europe has maintained the highest
average turnout (77%), and Latin America the lowest (53%),
but turnout does not necessarily reflect regional wealth.
North America and the Caribbean have the third lowest turnout
rate, while Oceania and the former Soviet states of the
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and Central Eastern
Europe are respectively the second and third highest regions
over this period.
(source: International IDEA Voter Turnout
website; www.idea.int)
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