Bosnian general election, 2006

Bosnia and Herzegovina general election, 2006

1 October 2006

First party Second party Third party   Leader Milorad Dodik Sulejman Tihić Haris Silajdžić Party SNSD SDA SBiH Leader since 1996 2001 1996 Last election 3 10 6 Seats before 3 10 6 Seats won 7 9 8 Seat change 4 1 2 Popular vote 269,648 238,475 219,487   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Zlatko Lagumdžija Dragan Čavić Dragan Čović Party SDP BiH SDS HDZ BiH Leader since 1997 2006 2005 Last election 5 5 5 Seats before 5 5 5 Seats won 5 3 3 Seat change 2 2 Popular vote 143,272 108,616 69,333

Colours denote the party with the most votes by municipalities

Chairman before election Adnan Terzić SDA Elected Chairman Nikola Špirić SNSD

Logo of the 2006 general election

General elections were held in Bosnia and Herzegovina on 1 October 2006. They decided the makeup of Bosnia and Herzegovina's presidency as well as federal, entity, and cantonal governments. As of September 2006 there were 2,736,886 registered voters. Of the 2.7 million voters, 1.7 millions are in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and 1 million in Republika Srpska.^[1] Official voter turnout as reported by the Central Election Commission was 52.74% of the total number of registered voters.^[2]

Background

Analysts claimed that the 2006 election would be the most important since Bosnia's independence from Yugoslavia, and the subsequent Bosnian War. With the previous government failing to agree reforms to the constitution, and Bosnian Muslim politicians continuing to threaten the abolition of the Republika Srpska and officials in Republika Srpska continuing to speak of possible secession from the country in response, the election was seen as crucial in determining the future of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The results were tentatively welcomed by commentators, and described as bringing "small signs of change to a Bosnia where institutional fragmentation has cemented ethnic division", with the result suggesting "a certain retreat of nationalism among the Muslim and Croat communities".^[3]

Controversy

A controversy has emerged over the election of the Croatian member of presidency. Although Željko Komšić is an ethnic Croat, as a member of the SDP he was alleged by his political opponents to have received votes mainly from Bosniaks. He has been accused by his opponents that he was not the choice of Croats, but rather Bosniaks, citing that he did not win majority for Croatian representative in any of the counties/cantons with Croat majority. This is the result of the fact that in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, both Bosniak and Croat presidents are on one ballot, letting the voter choose to vote in either category regardless of their own ethnicity.

Results

State Presidency

One President was elected from each of the country's three constitutional peoples: Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs.^[4]

Community	Candidate	Party	Votes	%
Bosniaks	Haris Silajdžić	Party for Bosnia and Herzegovina	350,520	62.8
	Sulejman Tihić	Party of Democratic Action	153,683	27.5
	Mirnes Ajanović	Patriotski Blok BOSS-SDU BiH	45,608	8.2
	Muhamed Čengić	People's Party Work for Betterment	4,466	0.8
	Bešćo Alibegović	Independent	2,670	0.5
	Adil Žigić	Independent	1,245	0.2
Croats	Željko Komšić	Social Democratic Party	116,062	40.0
	Ivo Miro Jović	Croatian Democratic Union	76,681	26.1
	Božo Ljubić	Croatian Democratic Union 1990	53,325	18.2
	Mladen Ivanković Lijanović	People's Party Work for Betterment	24,822	8.5
	Zvonko Jurišić	Croatian Party of Rights	20,350	6.9
	Irena Korjenić Javor	Independent	2,143	0.7
Serbs	Nebojša Radmanović	Alliance of Independent Social Democrats	287,675	53.3
	Mladen Bosić	Serbian Democratic Party	130,824	24.2
	Zoran Tešanović	Party of Social Progress	26,818	5.0
	Jugoslav Jovičić	Social Democratic Party	22,245	4.1
	Radislav Kanjerić	Serbian Radical Party	19,849	3.7
	Ranko Bakić	People's Party Work for Betterment	18,302	3.4
	Nedo Durić	Serbian Democratic Movement	16,307	3.0
	Slavko Dragičević	Patriotic Bloc (BOSS–SDU)	10,410	2.0
	Svjetlana Udovičić	Independent	2,847	0.5
	Snežana Avdalović	Independent	2,753	0.5
	Branislav Ristić	Independent	2,143	0.4
Invalid/blank votes				–
Total			1,397,418	100
Source: Nohlen & Stöver

House of Representatives

Distribution of seats in the House of Representatives

According to the constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the representatives from the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina are allocated 28 seats, while the representatives from the Republika Srpska have 14 seats. There are 42 seats in total.

Results

Party	Federation			Republika Srpska			Total
	Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats
Party of Democratic Action	217,961	25.5	8	20,514	3.7	1	9
Party for Bosnia and Herzegovina	196,230	23.0	7	23,257	4.2	1	8
Social Democratic Party	131,450	15.4	5	11,822	2.1	0	5
HDZ-HK-HNZ	68,188	8.0	3	1,145	0.2	0	3
Croats Together	52,095	6.1	2	591	0.1	0	2
Bosnian Patriotic Party	37,608	4.4	1	866	0.2	0	1
People's Party Work for Betterment	27,487	3.2	1	5,533	1.0	0	1
Patriotic Bloc (BOSS–SDU)	23,605	2.8	0	162	0.0	0	0
Croatian Party of Rights	19,486	2.3	0	4,929	0.9	0	0
Democratic People's Union	16,221	1.9	1	321	0.1	0	1
Pensioners' Party	11,790	1.4	0	–	–	–	0
Liberal Democratic Party	8,337	1.0	0	–	–	–	0
Youth Political Movement	7,713	0.9	0	800	0.1	0	0
Party of Independent Social Democrats	7,265	0.9	0	262,203	46.9	7	7
Movement for Change	6,091	0.7	0	–	–	–	0
European Ecological Party E5	5,053	0.6	0	519	0.1	0	0
Civic Democratic Party	4,322	0.5	0	400	0.1	0	0
People's Bosniak Party	3,848	0.4	0	–	–	–	0
Democratic Party of Invalids	3,475	0.4	0	–	–	–	0
BH Free Democrats	1,657	0.2	0	–	–	–	0
Socialist Party	1,752	0.2	0	12,579	2.3	0	0
KNSZPBG-PMBiH	1,013	0.1	0	369	0.1	0	0
Bosansko Podrinjska Narodna Stranka	493	0.0	0	73	0.0	0	0
Democratic People's Alliance	232	0.0	0	19,868	3.6	1	1
Serbian Democratic Party	–	–	–	108,616	19.4	3	3
Party of Democratic Progress	–	–	–	28,410	5.1	1	1
Serbian Radical Party	–	–	–	15,806	2.8	0	0
SRS "Dr. Vojislav Šešelj"	–	–	–	14,714	2.6	0	0
PS–NDS	–	–	–	12,340	2.2	0	0
Serbian Democratic Movement	–	–	–	7,807	1.4	0	0
Serbian New Power	–	–	–	2,712	0.5	0	0
Democratic Socialist Alliance	–	–	–	2,350	0.4	0	0
Invalid/blank votes	68,492	–	–	33,027	–	–	–
Total	921,864	100	28	591,733	100	14	42
Source: Nohlen & Stöver, IPU

House of Peoples

The 15 members of the House of Peoples will be elected in entities' Parliaments - 10 members by the House of Representatives of the Parliament of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (5 Bosniaks and 5 Croats); and 5 members by the National Assembly of the Republika Srpska.

Entity Parliaments

On the entity level, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republika Srpska will elect new governments.

Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina

In the Federation this includes:

• Prime Minister of the Federation
• Federation House of Representatives
• Federation House of Peoples

House of Representatives of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Only parties which have won mandates are listed:

	Party	Votes	Reg.	Com.	Total
	Party of Democratic Action (SDA)	218,365	23	5	28
	Party for Bosnia and Herzegovina (Za BiH)	190,148	19	5	24
	Social Democratic Party (SDP)	130,204	13	4	17
	Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina (HDZ/HNZ/HSP)	64,906	7	1	8
	Croatian Democratic Union 1990 (HDZ1990)	54,210	5	2	7
	Bosnian-Herzegovinian Patriotic Party-Sefer Halilović (BPS)	35,223	1	3	4
	Bosnian Party/Social Democratic Union (BOSS/SDU)	27,200	1	2	3
	People's Party Work for Betterment	27,132	-	3	3
	Croatian Party of Right/New Croatian Initiative	21,152	1	-	1
	Democratic People's Community	16,014	2	-	2
	Union of Independent Social Democrats	12,564	1	-	1

Reg. - Mandates from regional electoral units; Com. - Mandates from compensation lists
Source - Central Electoral Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Republika Srpska

In the Republika Srpska, the government is made up of:

• Prime Minister of Republika Srpska
• President (Serb) and vice-presidents (Croat and Bosniak) of Republika Srpska
• National Assembly of the Republika Srpska

National Assembly of the Republika Srpska

• SNSD 44.95%
• SDS 18.99%
• PDP 7.13%
• DNS 4.22%
• SP 3.70%
• SRS 3.02%

Seat allocation:

• SNSD 41
• SDS 17
• PDP RS 8
• DNS 4
• SBiH 4
• SP 3
• SDA 3
• SRS RS 2
• SDP 1

Canton Parliaments

All 289 mandates in the assemblies of the Cantons of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina were up for election; interestingly, the same parties elected into the Federal Parliament were elected onto cantonal assemblies (skupština kantona/скупштина кантона in Bosnian and Serbian, sabor županije in Croatian).

	Party	USK	ŽP	TK	ZDK	BPK	SBK ŽSB	HNK ŽHN	ZHŽ	KS	K10	Total
	Party of Democratic Action (SDA)	12	2	12	13	9	8	6	-	10	2	74
	Party for Bosnia and Herzegovina (Za BiH)	6	1	7	11	8	7	5	-	13	1	59
	Social Democratic Party (SDP)	6	2	11	5	6	3	2	-	7	1	43
	Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina (HDZ/HNZ/HSP)	-	7	-	2	-	6	7	9	-	5	36
	Croatian Democratic Union 1990 (HDZ1990)	-	5	-	-	-	3	7	8	-	6	29
	Croatian Party of Right/New Croatian Initiative	-	2	-	-	-	2	2	4	-	4	14
	People's Party Work for Betterment	-	2	2	1	1	1	-	2	-	1	10
	Bosnian-Herzegovinian Patriotic Party-Sefer Halilović (BPS)	-	-	1	3	1	-	1	-	2	-	8
	Democratic People's Community	6	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	6
	Bosnian Party/Social Democratic Union (BOSS/SDU)	-	-	2	-	-	-	-	-	3	-	5
	Union of Independent Social Democrats	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	5	5

Source - Central Electoral Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina

See also

• Republika Srpska general election, 2006

References

1. IFES Election Guide - Election Profile for Bosnia and Herzegovina
2. http://www.ihf-hr.org/viewbinary/viewdocument.php?doc_id=7395
3. Nicholas Walton, A house divided: Bosnia after the elections, openDemocracy, 3 October 2006, accessed 25 November 2006
4. Nohlen, D & Stöver, P (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p345 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7

External links

• Bosnian Electoral Commission official site
• Bosnia’s “Historic” Elections: The Usual Tensions, Plus a Seed of Hope, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, December 2006