Second Annual Conference in Teslic

Page 4

Dear Colleagues,

The new election law was sent to parliamentary procedure on October 21, 1999 but the Parliamentary Assembly of the BiH did not adopt it. Therefore, this year's General Elections were held in accordance with the Provisional Election Commission (PEC) Rules and Regulations (R&R) with significant inclusion of provisions from the draft election law.

This presentation is not a political evaluation of the election process and the election results themselves, but a presentation of some of the major issues raised in connection with BiH electoral system, and the most important election results from November 2000.

The Open List was used for the election of the following levels of government: House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of the BiH, House of Representatives of the FBIH, National Assembly of the RS, Cantonal Assemblies and Municipal Assembly of Srebrenica.

Approximately 30 % of counselors were elected due to the introduction of the Open List. This is a clear indication that the voters understood and wanted to use the system in accordance with its intention. The open list system allows a voter to express support either for a political party or an individual candidate from the candidate list of a political party, coalition or list of independent candidates. The intention is to increase the level of accountability for elected officials by making them rely on the positive approval of the electorate, rather than relying on influence within the party to be placed high on the party candidate list.

With the Preferential Voting system used for the elections for the President and Vice President of the Republika Srpska, the need for candidates to appeal for second, and later, preference votes from supporters of other candidates were expected to help moderate policies of these candidates and elect candidates who are more acceptable to larger groups of the electorate.

There were six political parties running for the offices of the President and Vice-President of the RS: SDS - Serbs Democratic Party; PDPRS - Party of Democratic Progress of Republika Srpska; SNSD- Party of Independent Social Democrats (Milorad Dodik); Gradjanska Demokratska Stranka - Citizens Democratic Party; SDP BiH - Social Democratic Party of BiH and BOSS- Bosnian Party.

Table 1: Republika Srpska Election Statistics

No. of voters	677,928
No. of valid ballots	629,363
No. of voters voting in regular polling stations	549,640
No. of valid ballots from regular polling stations	526,245
No. of ballots received by mail	50,887
No. of valid ballots received by mail	48,384
No. of absentee ballots	62,450
No. of valid absentee ballots	42,296
No. of tendered ballots	14,951
No. of valid tendered ballots	12,438

The winning candidate should receive 50 % + 1 vote or 314,681 votes.

After counting the first preferences the results were the following:

Table 2: Votes /RS PresidentRS Election Statistic

	First preference	Percentage %
SDS candidates	313,572	49,8%
SNSD candidates	161,942	25,7%

The party that won the smallest number of first preferences was Bosnian Party (BOSS) with 12,851 first preference votes. After counting the second preferences in first transfer it was determined that 3,924 voters whose first preference was the candidate of BOSS party did not give the second preference to any candidate, therefore, the total number of the of votes after the first transfer was 625, 439, and the needed number for election of the president /vice-president at that point was 312,719. Counted votes after the first transfer showed that SDS party and their candidates won with 313,607 votes or 50, 1%. 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 162,154 votes or 25, 9%.

The total number of transferred second preferences in the first transfer was 8,927 and the second preferences were distributed as follows: SDS: 35; PDPRS: 41; SNSD: 212; Gradjanska Demokratska Stranka: 5,220; SDPBiH: 3,419.

Let me now turn to another topic that caught the interest of many during the elections, namely, registration of political parties, independent candidates and lists of independent candidates. There were 44 political parties, 5 independent candidates, and 3 lists of independent candidates running for office.

The OSCE Political Party Services branch received 6,502 candidates forms. After the verification process, candidacies for 5,848 candidates were accepted. Six hundred fifty-four (654) candidates were not certified for running in the General Elections since they were not registered voters, they were not registered in the constituency where they were running for office, or they were members of bodies in charge of implementation of election results, etc.

After the ballots were printed, it was determined that some 60 candidates were not satisfying the conditions set forth in the R&R and consequently the total number of verified candidates was 5,788.

Of the 60 candidates prohibited to run for office, 21 candidates violated Article 108 of the R&R, or did not leave the property or the apartments with tenancy rights of refugees and displaced persons within the deadline; 30 candidates were removed from the candidates list due to Election Appeals Sub Commission decisions; 9 candidates were included in the candidacy list without their knowledge; and 2 candidates could not run for the office due to incompatibility with their public positions.

In total, 69 political parties, 10 independent candidates, 9 coalitions and 8 alliances ran for office in the BiH General Elections in November 2000. If we compare the participation of political parties in the 1998 General Elections, we could say that the political scene in BiH has crystallized indicating a democratic trend in the participation of political parties.

What was the reason for a twenty-five percent decrease in the number of political parties running for elections in 2000? The most important factor was the fact that the deposit fee for registration of political parties was raised significantly. In 1998 the registration fee for participation at all levels of the government was 1,000 DEM. This year for the November Elections, the registration fee ranged between 2,000 DEM to 10,000 DEM depending on the level of the government aspired to by a party or a candidate. The deposit is only to be returned in case mandates are won.

A special place in the analysis of the General Elections held in Bosnia and Herzegovina belongs to political propaganda. Political propaganda used by some political parties this year represents the most obvious example of people being manipulated. It was a promotion of national exclusivity and was intended to wake up the dormant patriotism, attract the non-enlightened ones, and inherent in many messages was the fear concerning the two other nations and other parties, particularly SDP that, allegedly, inherits the previous political system and communist ideology.

I believe it would be useful if a working group comprising non-partisan intellectuals, experts in sociology and political science, philosophers and others, by applying scientific methods, were to explore to what extent the religious communities, i.e. priests and religious servants of the three religious communities, have been engaged during the election campaign. This even more because, on the basis of very superficial indications, we know that the religious servants were, openly and in religious buildings, inviting believers to support political parties. Also, the highest officials of national parties were speaking fervently about their strong connections with "their" church; the parties obviously consider ethnicity and religious beliefs closely related, which is a clear example of politicization of religious freedoms and feelings of citizens.

I am not initiating or emphasizing this issue because of any negative thinking or attitude towards religion, believers or the church as an institution. I am doing this because I am convinced that the position and role of religious communities in our environment, and in general, are very important. The process of secularization is one of the key and essential preconditions for the development of a civil society and state, and an important step on the path bringing us closer to a democratic Europe. This is, at the same time, an important condition for the complete realization of religious freedoms as one of our fundamental rights.

Political marketing has as one of its goals the creation of a positive social atmosphere through the distribution of knowledge. What the political parties have presented in the General Elections cannot be called "political marketing". It was election marketing. From the declared goals set forth by the political parties using such election marketing, we can say it was "successful". During the election campaign it became a trend to emphasize the religious and nationalistic components. It is true that religion and faith have been frustrated during the communist era, but not to the extent declared by the nationalistic political parties. In essence, this was a case of flirting with the people. Political parties did not offer progress and voters were reduced to biological units, a mass where everybody thinks the same. The election campaign has shown that notions of nation, religion, faith and language have been wrongly formulated linguistically, and as such, they are taking us into the abyss.

Let me change the subject and provide some more statistical details on the election results. The total number of registered voters for General Elections in BiH was 2,508,349, while the number of voters who cast their ballots was 1,616,313 or 64,4 %.

Out of the total number of registered voters in FBIH (1,225,555) 831,154 voters or 67% cast their ballots in regular polling stations. In Republika Srpska there were 858,243 registered voters and 549,438 or 64% voted in regular polling stations. Out of country there were 232,739 registered voters and some 99,996 voters or 43% who cast their ballots. There were 191,812 registered absentee voters and out of that number 91,217 voters or 47,5% cast their ballots. There were 44,508 tendered ballots.

For the election of representatives to the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH, the total number of voters who cast their ballots was 1,596,805. Out of that number, there were 1,491,101 valid votes.

Table 3: RS Election Statistics

Total number of representatives (reps)	Total number of reps from FBIH	Total number of reps from FBIH selected from 5 multimember constituencies	Total number of compensatory mandates from territory of FBIH	Total number of representatives from RS	Total number of reps from RS selected from 3 multimember constituencies	Total number of compensatory mandates from territory of RS
42	2/3 or 28	21	7	1/3 or 14	9	5

The elections gave the following mandates to the parties: SDP - 9; SDA - 8; SDS - 5; HDZ - 5; SBiH - 5; PDP - 2; DNZ - 1; BPS - 1; BiH pensioners - 1; NHI - 1; SNSD/DSP - 1; SNS - 1.

For the election to the House of Representatives of the FBIH, results came out as the following:

Table 4: FBiH Election Statistics

Total number of representatives in House of Reps of the FBIH	Number of mandates elected from 12 multimember constituencies	Number of compensatory mandates for FBIH	Number of parties running for elections in FBIH	Number of mandates won by SDA	Number of mandates won by SDP	Number of mandates won by HDZ BiH	Number of mandates won by SBIH
140	105	35	24Parties 1 I.C. 1 list of I.C.	38 or 27%	37 or 26%	25 or 21%	21 or 15%

The above-mentioned parties won 121 mandates together and the rest of 19 mandates were distributed between 12 political parties that together won 13% of votes.

For the election to the National Assembly of Republika Srpska, results came out as the following:

Table 5: RS Election Statistics

 

Total number of reps in NA of the RS	Number of mandates elected from 6 multi-member constituencies	Number of compensatory mandates for RS	Number of parties running for elections in RS	Number of mandates won by SDS	Number of mandates won by SNSD	Number of mandates won by PDP	Number of mandates won by SDA	Number of mandates won by SPRS, DSP and SBIH
83	62	21	31	31or 38%	13 or 11%	13 or 11%	6 or 7%	4 or 5%

The 8 remaining mandates belong to 6 other political parties.

And finally, what else should I say about this year's elections? I think I should repeat what has already been said: "These elections were the best organized elections we have seen so far". We all contributed to the success and in the forthcoming period we should continue to support the nationalization process. I am confident that AEOBiH will play an important role in the BiH election process in the future.

Question and Answer Session

Q: What are the most important problems in the election process and what should we do in the future?

A: My analysis reflects only my personal opinion. Most of you were directly involved in the organization of election and you are very familiar with the problems in the field. Others and I created the Rules and Regulations for the elections and we have probably not been aware of all the problems occurring in the field. We should look carefully into possible ways of improving the system. We will have to define the role of OSCE in future elections and see how we can generate a smooth transition process towards a national administration. To my knowledge the national authorities have done nothing to facilitate the transfer of authority away from OSCE, and in this context I think particularly about budget related matters. MECs will be in difficult situation with regard to the provision of funds for their functioning. Another important issue is the registration of voters. It is necessary to create a registration system where election administrators use the same database as other authorities. I have heard from many of you that the relations and cooperation between MECs and the municipal authorities is bad, which is part of the problem. The success of future elections very much rests on the quality of the voter registers and it should be our priority for the future.

Q: Were the tendered ballots a success?

A: Tendered ballots constitute an area where I think AEOBiH could be of valuable assistance. The number of tendered ballots should be reduced in the coming years. This year we had 5 percent tendered ballots, which is very high according to European standards, but reasonable in a BiH context.