Municipal elections were held in Bosnia and Herzegovina on 15 November 2020 to elect mayors and assemblies in 143 municipalities.[1] Originally scheduled for 4 October, they were postponed due to a lack of funds.[2][3][4]
A total of 3,283,194 citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina were registered to vote[6][7] – almost on par with the total population of the country, 3,531,159 at the 2013 census[8] – pointing to issues of outdated data in the voters' registry.
Out of 425 mayoral candidates, 29 were women.[9] Only 4 women were elected mayors, down from 7.
Mayors are elected by a first-past-the-post system, with the candidate receiving the plurality of votes winning. For this reason, multi-party coalitions are more common at the mayoral level, with a united political or ethnic slate presented in situations where several candidates may divide the electorate. Assembly elections use open listproportional representation, with the number of assembly members varying by population.[11]
Sarajevo and Istočno Sarajevo are further subdivided into four and six municipalities which also elect assemblies. The mayor of Sarajevo is elected indirectly,[12][13] while the mayor of Istočno Sarajevo has been elected directly since these elections.[14][15] The Brčko District is an independent self-administrative unit, electing an assembly which in turn selects a mayor.[16]
Mostar holds elections using the mixed-member proportional representation system where 22 seats are elected in six different city areas and 13 on the city list.[17] The mayor is elected by the city assembly.[17] These were the first elections in Mostar after the political agreement in 2020 and the first to be held in the same time as the rest of the country since the 2008 elections.[18][19]
Electoral campaign
One of HDZ BiH's campaign posters featuring Mostar city council candidate Mario Kordić. The slogan Investments, economy, jobs is positioned above the party's logo
Electoral issues dominated the Bosnian public sphere across September and October, although the electoral campaign officially started only on 16 October. Political parties held large rallies, despite growing COVID-19 cases (over 50,000 cases and 1,234 deaths by 31 October) and in violation of health and safety regulations.[20]
According to Transparency International in Bosnia and Herzegovina (TI BIH), political parties spent almost one million BAM on video production and advertising in TV and print media in the first two weeks of campaign. Almost the entire amount was spent by the main six parties, with the largest share by Banja Luka-based SNSD (351,357) and PDP (325,852km).[21] Transparency International also recorded multiple examples of abuse of administrative resources by parties in power for electoral purposes.[22]
In Velika Kladuša, outgoing mayor and convicted war criminal Fikret Abdić, under arrest since June for abuse of office,[23] was released to allow him to carry out electoral campaign.[24]
The international High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Valentin Inzko, noted that the election campaign was "characterized by divisive, negative rhetoric that deepens existing divisions and makes reconciliation in Bosnia and Herzegovina increasingly difficult."[25]
The Central Electoral Commission (CIK) fined several parties for illicit activities before the formal start of the electoral campaign. On 7 October, the CIK banned from elections the United Srpska and fined it BAM 10,000 for diffusion of a video on social media deemed as spreading ethnic hatred.[26][27] On 15 October, the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina annulled such decision, as it deemed that the legal provisions referred to by the CIK (Election Law) did not apply to the period ahead the formal start of the electoral campaign. The video continued to be shared by the party on social media in the following weeks.[28][29][30]
The number of voters registers from abroad soared to 101,771, alarming judicial institutions to the risk of fraud.[31] The CIK received over 3,500 reports of suspected fraud,[32] particularly in relation to Srebrenica and Brčko. To facilitate the identification of such cases, on 8 October the CIK published on its website the liste of registered mail-in voters, including names and addresses, allowing all citizens to identify and report suspected irregularities. On 14 October the BiH Agency for the Protection of Personal Data requested the removal of the list of registered mail-in voters from the CIK website, citing privacy concerns.[33]
The CIK rejected over 27,000 received applications for voting from abroad[32] and reported suspect cases of fraud to the State-level BiH Prosecutor's Office, which however on 12 October indicated that it rejected jurisdiction on them and advised the CIK to address local judicial institutions.[34]
Turnout reached 50.40%. Governing parties in each communities (Bosniak SDA and Bosnian Serb SNSD) had a lacklustre showing, and opposition candidates won in Sarajevo as well as, unexpectedly, in Banja Luka and Bijeljina. Party leaders (Bakir Izetbegović and Milorad Dodik respectively) acknowledged the loss.
In the Bosnian capital Sarajevo, in its municipality of Centar, the candidate of the opposition coalition Srđan Mandić (Our Party) obtained almost two thirds of the votes. Opposition candidates won 4 municipalities out of 9. Experienced politician, Social Democrat Bogić Bogićević was poised to be elected the next mayor of the city of Sarajevo in the coming weeks by the City Council.[36] In parallel, the alliance of the four opposition parties, colloquially called the Four, also initiated the reshuffle process of the government of the Sarajevo Canton, which they controlled with good results for the first time in 2019, but which returned in March 2020 to the hands of the SDA.[37][38][39][40]
In Zenica the outgoing mayor, the independent Fuad Kasumović, kept the town hall; the SDA candidate, Deputy Minister of Justice Nezir Pivić got only second. Also in Tuzla, the Social Democrat Jasmin Imamović – the longest-serving mayor in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in power since 2001 – maintained control of the cantonal capital, resulting in the lead in all polling stations in town. In Velika Kladuša, war criminal Fikret Abdić, was re-elected, even if only with a very narrow margin on challenger Jasmin Hušić. In Mostar, voting took place on 20 December, for the first time since 2008.[37]
In the Republika Srpska entity, 27-year-old opposition candidate Draško Stanivuković (PDP) won the majority of votes for the post of City mayor of Banja Luka over the outgoing Igor Radojičić (SNSD), a loyalist of Dodik. Stanivuković created a public profile lambasting nepotism and corruption of the ruling party, as well as showing himself closer to the demands of the "Justice for David" movement. Dodik's party had ruled the Bosnian Serb capital since 1998.[37]
The SNSD, with Dalibor Pavlović, instead gained the municipality of Prijedor, a fiefdom of his allied DNS party; that of Doboj, where the previous mayor aligned himself with the SNSD in 2018; and that of Trebinje, where Dodik had promised the construction of an airport – financed by Serbia. In Srebrenica, waiting for the postal votes, the outgoing mayor, Serb Mladen Grujičić, a denier of the genocide, was ahead of just 600 votes; Bosniak parties, which counted on at least 1600 postal votes, declared victory for their candidate Alija Tabaković. Ultimately, Grujičić was re-elected. Finally, in Bijeljina the outgoing mayor Mićo Mićić, in power since 2004, had aligned himself with Dodik, being expelled from the SDS party; he unexpectedly lost his seat to opposition candidate Ljubiša Petrović (SDS/PDP). However, Dodik's coalition obtained a majority in the city council.[37]
Mayoral
Denotes municipality within city Denotes municipality changing hands
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