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2.2. The Parliament of the Federation of Bosnia
and Herzegovina
The Parliament of the Federation of Bosnia and
Herzegovina consists of two institutions: The House of Peoples of
the Federation and the House of Representatives of the Federation.
The House of Peoples of the Federation
The House of Peoples of the Federation has eighty
members: thirty Bosniaks, thirty Croats, and twenty Others. These
members are elected from Canton Assemblies from members of these
assemblies. The Provisional Election Commission determines the total
number of delegates to be elected from each Canton using the number
of registered voters. In this past election, it was determined based
on the number of registered voters as of March 2000. For each Canton,
the number of registered voters is divided by the numbers 1, 3,
5, 7, etc., as long as necessary for the allocation. The numbers
from these divisions are called the quotients. The quotients of
each Canton are ordered by size, the largest quotients being placed
first in the order. Each Canton is allocated three seats as a minimum.
The three highest quotients of each Canton are deleted from the
list of quotients. The remaining seats are allocated to Cantons
one by one in descending order according to the remaining quotients.
The rules for allocation of seats for Bosniaks,
Croats, and Others from each Canton are fairly complicated. The
rules are determined by the Provisional Election Commission in a
way that distributes the seats amongst Bosniaks, Croats, and Others
by taking into account the 1991 census, so that there is at least
one delegate from each of those groups with at least one member
in the Assembly of that Canton.
The election of delegates to the House of Peoples
of the Federation shall take place as soon as the Cantonal Assembly
convenes after the elections for the Cantonal Assemblies.
The mandate of a delegate to the House of Peoples
is two years, provided that the mandate does not expire at an earlier
date due to dissolution of the Cantonal Assembly that appointed
the delegate.
The distribution of seats amongst the Cantons
is displayed in the table below.
TABLE 2: Delegates to Cantons, 2000
|
Canton
|
Bosniaks
|
Croats
|
Others |
Total
|
| 1 Una-Sana |
4
|
3
|
2
|
9
|
| 2 Posavina |
1
|
1
|
1
|
3
|
| 3 Tuzla |
6
|
5
|
3
|
14
|
| 4 Zenica-Doboj |
5
|
5
|
3
|
13
|
| 5 Gorazde |
1
|
1
|
1
|
3
|
| 6 Central Bosnia |
4
|
4
|
2
|
10
|
| 7 Neretva |
4
|
4
|
1
|
9
|
| 8 West Herzegovina |
0
|
3
|
0
|
3
|
| 9 Sarajevo |
4
|
3
|
6
|
13
|
| 10 Canton 10 (Livno) |
1
|
1
|
1
|
3
|
|
Total
|
30
|
30
|
20
|
80
|
The House of Peoples of the Federation was constituted in February
2001 even though not all Cantonal Assemblies (Canton 7, 8, 10) took
part in the process. The results are displayed in Annex 4.
The House of Representatives of the Federation
The House of Representatives consists of 140
members, directly elected by registered voters in the Federation
of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The mandate of each member is two years.
One hundred and five members are elected from multi-member constituencies
under a proportional formula.
BOX 3: Distribution of Mandates (source: PEC Rules &
Regulations 2000, www.oscebih.org)
| For each political party and coalition,
the total number of valid votes received by that party or coalition
shall be divided by 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, etc. as long as necessary
for the allocation. The number resulting from this series of
divisions shall be the "quotients". The number of
votes for an independent candidate is the quotient for that
candidate. The quotients shall be arranged in order from the
highest quotient to the lowest quotient. Mandates shall be distributed
to the highest quotients until all of the constituency mandates
for the body have been distributed. See example of "quotients"
calculated for the election of delegates to the House of Peoples
of BiH in annex 3. |
Thirty-five compensatory mandates are elected in accordance with
the following principle:
BOX 4: Distribution of Compensatory Mandates (source: PEC
Rules and Regulations 2000)
| Only political parties and coalitions may
take part in the distribution of compensatory mandates. Compensatory
mandates are given to parties or coalitions with the highest
"un-rewarded" quotients (see "quotient"
in the box above). A compensatory mandate won by a political
party or coalition is allocated one by one to unelected candidates
on the political party or coalition's list of candidates for
compensatory mandates, beginning at the top of the list (compensatory
mandate list may be submitted by parties before election day),
until all mandates are distributed. If the party or coalition
has not submitted such list, or if there are no more unelected
candidates on the list, the mandate is given to the list of
the same party or coalition in the constituency where the quotient
that has not been allocated a mandate for the same list is higher
than in any other constituency. |
The composition of the House of Representatives
should be examined more closely. The following is a comparison of
the 1998 and 2000 results. KCD, the coalition involving SDA, SBiH,
Liberali, and GDS, won almost half (49%) of the votes in 1998 and
sixty-eight mandates. In 2000, SDA received 27% of the vote and
38 mandates while SBiH attained 15% of the vote, which translated
into twenty-one mandates. GDS managed to attract 1% of the vote,
thereby receiving 1 mandate. In total, the individual parties together
earned sixty mandates, eight less than the 1998 KCD coalition.
Parties that fared the same in 1998 and 2000
were DNZ with three mandates, HSS with one mandate, BiH Pensioners
with one mandate, and BPS with two mandates.
FIGURE 2: FBiH General Elections 1998 and 2000 (source: www.oscebih.org)
NHI and HKDU took part in the 1998 elections as a coalition and
received four mandates. In 2000, they ran separately and managed
to get two (NHI) and one (HKDU) mandate. HDZ dropped from twenty-eight
to twenty-five mandates in 2000. HSP lost one mandate, declining
from two 1998 mandates to one mandate in 2000.
Federation Pensioners, an offshoot of BiH Pensioners,
managed to win two mandates in 2000. Republikanci did not win a
mandate in 1998 but entered the House with a single mandate in 2000.
SDP had a tremendous 2000 elections in comparison with 1998. It
increased from twenty-one mandates (SDP got fifteen and SDBiH got
six mandates) to thirty-seven mandates, which almost doubled its
seats in the House. BOSS did double their representation from one
to two mandates in 2000.
The table below displays Federation election
statistics for 1998 and 2000. The numbers are organized as 1998/2000.
TABLE 3: Election Statistics 1998/2000 (source: www.oscebih.org)
|
Types of Votes
|
Valid 1998 and 2000
|
Invalid and Blank 1998 and 2000
|
Total 1998 and 2000
|
| Ordinary FBIH |
776,220
|
784,085
|
76,824
|
46,523
|
853,044
|
830,608
|
| OCV |
68,938
|
45,438
|
5,801
|
1,020
|
74,739
|
46,458
|
| Absentee |
23,626
|
17,464
|
3,851
|
1,458
|
27,477
|
18,922
|
| Tendered |
58,783
|
20,725
|
10,117
|
1,684
|
68,900
|
22,409
|
| Total |
927,567
|
867,712
|
96,593
|
50,685
|
1,024,160
|
918,397
|
The most surprising data is the increase from 776,220 to 784,085
of valid ordinary ballots between 1998 and 2000. The total decrease
in voter turnout from 1,024,160 to 918,397 (9%) can be attributed
to the number of OCV, absentee, and tendered ballots. The number
of blank and invalid votes declined from 96,593 to 50,685-almost
a 50% reduction.
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