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The Preferential System
The 2000 general elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina
used the preferential system for the first time. The Provisional
Election Commission (PEC) introduced the system for the election
of the President and Vice-President of Republika Srpska.
On the preferential ballot for the elections,
all the registered candidates' names for the President and Vice-President
were displayed. The following section examines how the system works
and how the final result is calculated.
A voter marks the ballot by writing the number
1 opposite the name of the candidate whom the voter chooses as her/his
first preference. If the voter wishes to express subsequent preferences,
she/he may do so by writing the numbers 2, 3, 4, etc. opposite the
names of the other remaining candidates. The voters may give as
many preferences as they wish, but no more preferences than there
are candidates on the ballot.
When the votes are counted, the ballots are first
sorted by the first preferences marked by the voters. A candidate
needs more than 50% first preferences (1) to be elected. If no candidate
receives more than 50% first preferences, the candidate with the
lowest number of first preferences is eliminated from the count
and her/his votes are re-distributed according to second preference
votes to other candidates indicated on the ballots. If, again, no
candidate receives more than 50%, the procedure will be repeated
until one candidate obtains more than 50%.
By using the opportunity
to mark more than one candidate, the voter can influence the outcome
of the election with his/her second, third, or higher choice by
the transfer of the remaining preferences in the case that his/her
first choice is eliminated. When more than just the first preference
votes are taken into consideration, the moderate candidates stand
a better chance of winning the elections, as they will have greater
support from a larger cross-section of the electorate. Extreme or
radical candidates have less chance to win the elections.
In the example, thirty votes are cast:
|
Total preferences
|
Candidate A
|
Candidate B
|
Candidate C
|
Candidate D
|
Candidate E
|
| First |
10
|
6
|
5
|
4
|
5
|
| Second |
2
|
7
|
5
|
7
|
7
|
| Third |
3
|
3
|
6
|
4
|
5
|
| Fourth |
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
1
|
| Fifth |
3
|
2
|
0
|
3
|
5
|
After the first round, none of the candidates
received more than 50%. Therefore, candidate D is eliminated because
he/she received the smallest number of first preferences (4).
|
Transfer of second preferences from Candidate
D
|
Candidate A
|
Candidate B
|
Candidate C
|
Candidate E
|
Votes without second preferences
|
| First round |
0
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
2
|
| Total after first transfer |
10
|
6
|
5
|
7
|
28 valid votes
|
After the second round of counting, candidate
C is eliminated.
|
Transfer of second preferences from Candidate
C
|
Candidate A
|
Candidate B
|
Candidate E
|
Votes without second preferences
|
| Second round |
0
|
1
|
3
|
1
|
| Total after second transfer |
10
|
7
|
10
|
27 valid votes
|
After the third round of counting, candidate B is eliminated.
|
Transfer of second preferences from Candidate
B
|
Candidate A
|
Candidate E
|
Votes without second preferences
|
| Third round |
1
|
4
|
2
|
| Total after third transfer |
11
|
14
|
25 valid votes
|
Candidate E is a winner because he/she won
56% (14 out of 25 valid votes) of preferences after three rounds
of vote transfers from eliminated candidates. At the beginning,
candidate E had just five first preferences, but after the third
transfer he/she had accumulated fourteen.
From this example, it is possible to see the
importance of being supported by large number of voters, either
by their first preferences or by their second, third, and subsequent
preferences. Voters do have influence on the final result even if
their first choice does not win, because their second or third may
win in the end.
One could consider candidate A an extremist.
In spite of getting 30% support in the first round, he/she was not
elected. Candidate E had only 16.7 % of support in the first round,
but the preferential system's transfer of votes led to his/her victory.
It should, however, be mentioned that many elections
experts doubt whether preferential voting will promote conciliatory
behavior in deeply divided societies where ethnic groups are concentrated
in particular geographic regions. Obviously, the politicians' incentives
to seek endorsement from various groups depend on these groups'
existence and size.
In the 2000 general elections, there were
six political parties running for the offices of the President and
Vice-President of the RS: SDS - Srpska Demokratska Stranka; PDPRS
- Partija Demokratskog Progresa RS Republika Srpska; SNSD- Stranka
Neovisnih Socijaldemokrata (Milorad Dodik); GDS - Gradjanska Demokratska
Stranka; SDP BiH - Socijaldemokratska Partija BiH; and BOSS- Bosanska
Stranka.
TABLE 6: RS Presidential Elections
(source: Official Gazette of BiH, Year IV - No. 30)
| No. of eligible voters |
1,104,969
|
| No. of eligible voters participating |
676,989(61,27%)
|
| No. of invalid ballots (blank) |
17,853(2,64 %)
|
| No. of invalid ballots (wrong marking) |
30,693(4,53 %)
|
| No. of valid ballots |
628,443
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The winning candidate had to receive more
than 50% of the votes, or 314,222 votes. After counting the first
preferences, the results were the following:
Table 7: Votes / RS Presidential Elections
(source: Official Gazette of BiH, Year IV - No. 30)
| |
First preference |
Percentage % |
| SDS candidates |
313,242
|
49.8%
|
| SNSD candidates |
161,407
|
25.7%
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The party with the smallest number of first preferences was BOSS
with 12,851 first preference votes. After counting the second preferences
in the first transfer, it was determined that 3,924 voters whose
first preference was the candidate of BOSS did not give the second
preference to any candidate; therefore, the total number of the
of votes after the first transfer was 624,519 and the needed number
for electing the president/vice-president at that point was 312,259,5.
Counted votes after the first transfer showed that SDS and their
candidates won with 313,277 votes or 50.2%.
Mirko Sarovic was elected
President and Dragan Cavic was elected Vice-President of the Republika
Srpska. After transfer of the second preference, SNSD candidate
Milorad Dodik had won 161,619 votes or 25.9%.
The total number of
transferred second preferences in first transfer was 8,927 and the
second preferences were distributed as SDS 35, PDPRS 41, SNSD 212,
GDS 5,220, and SDPBiH 3,419.
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