ISSN 1847-2397 godiÅ¡te II broj 1 2009. | volume II number 1 2009

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Maja Sahadžić: The Electoral System of Bosnia and Herzegovinasuvremene TEME, (2009.) God. 2, Br. 1CONTEMPORARY issues, (2009) Vol. 2, No. 1had significant and essential leverage onCroat member of the Presidency of Bosniaand Herzegovina (Željko Komšić). Politicalparties as representatives of their peoplereacted bitterly stating that Croats did notchoose Željko Komšić as a member of thePresidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina.In counterpart Croats hold minor influenceupon Bosniak member of the Presidencyof Bosnia and Herzegovina election. In theend, changes in electoral system should enablesimilar way and conditions of electionsin the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovinaand Republic of Srpska. Yet, in present andmomentarily state of affairs, constitutionalreform is under way of attempt and if it happens,members of political parties as representativesof their people will surely reflecton electoral system of Bosnia and Herzegovina.2. The Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia andHerzegovina is constituted of House of Representativesof the Parliamentary Assemblyof Bosnia and Herzegovina and House ofPeoples of the Parliamentary Assembly ofBosnia and Herzegovina. House of Representativesof the Parliamentary Assemblyof Bosnia and Herzegovina is consisted of42 members that are being directly electedby citizens. 25 Each entity is one electoralunit/constituency where candidates are beingelected on a basis of compensatory listwhich gives compensatory mandates. Entitiesare being divided to smaller electoral25 By Article 9.1 of the Electoral Law of Bosnia and Herzegovinathe House of Representatives of the ParliamentaryAssembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina shall consist of forty-two (42) members, twenty-eight (28) of whom shall be directlyelected by voters registered to vote for the territoryof the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and fourteen(14) of whom shall be directly elected by voters registered tovote for the territory of the Republic of Srpska. The mandateof members of the House of Representatives of the ParliamentaryAssembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina shall be four(4) years. Of the twenty – eight (28) members who shall bedirectly elected by voters registered to vote for the territoryof the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, twenty – one(21) shall be elected from multi-member constituencies underthe proportional representation formula set forth in Article9.5 of this law, and seven (7) shall be compensatorymandates elected from the territory of the Federation as awhole according to Article 9.6 of this law. Of the fourteen (14)members who shall be directly elected by voters registeredto vote for the territory of the Republic of Srpska, nine (9)shall be elected from multi-member constituencies under theproportional representation formula set forth in Article 9.5 ofthis law, and five (5) shall be compensatory mandates electedfrom the territory of the Republic of Srpska as a wholeaccording to Article 9.6 of this law. A voter shall have oneballot for the proportional representation mandates in themulti-member constituency for which the voter is registered.units/constituencies which give the rest of2/3 of mandates. Electoral Law adoptedhalf-open list system which is more democraticbut connected with difficulties of votescounting. When it comes to mandates distribution,proportional representation formulahas been adopted according to the Saint-Laguë method of the highest average. 26Also, as a correction there is compensatorymandate system applied. 27 This houseshould express interests of all citizens onwhole territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina.But, this kind of election of members is disablingexpression of will of all citizens of Bosniaand Herzegovina. House of Peoples ofthe Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia andHerzegovina is consisted of 15 delegates ofwhom 2/3 from the Federation of Bosnia andHerzegovina (five Croats and five Bosniaks)and 1/3 from the Republic of Srpska (fiveSerbs) that are indirectly delegated by entity26 By Article 9.5 of the Electoral Law of Bosnia and Herzegovinamandates are allocated in each constituency in thefollowing manner: for each political party and coalition, thetotal number of valid votes received by that political party orcoalition shall be divided by 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, et seq., as longas necessary for the allocation in question. The numbers resultingfrom this series of divisions shall be the “quotients”.The number of votes for independent candidates is the quotientfor that candidate. The quotients shall be arranged inorder from the highest quotient to the lowest quotient. Mandatesshall be distributed, in order, to the highest quotientuntil all the constituency mandates for the body have beendistributed. Political parties, coalitions, lists of independentcandidates and independent candidates cannot participatein the allocation of mandates if they do not win more than 3%of the total number of valid ballots in an electoral unit.27 By Article 9.6 of the Electoral Law of Bosnia and Herzegovinacompensatory mandates shall be allocated in thefollowing manner: only political parties and coalitions, whichwon more than 3% of the total number of valid ballots forthe territory of the entity for which the compensatory list ismade193 may take part in the distribution of compensatorymandates. First, the total number of mandates for the legislativebody to be allocated for the territory of the respectiveEntity, reduced by the number of mandates won by independentcandidates, is distributed according to the formula setforth in Article 9.5 of this law. From the number of mandatesa list of a political party or coalition has won according to thisprocedure, the number of mandates won by the same partyor coalition, according to the procedure set forth in Article 9.5of this law, is deducted. The remaining number is the numberof compensatory mandates the list wins. If a political party orcoalition receives a negative number of mandates accordingto the procedure in the previous paragraph, the political partyor coalition keeps the mandates won in the constituencies,but does not receive any compensatory mandates. In caseone or more lists get a negative number of mandates, themandates to be distributed according to the procedure of thisarticle is decreased correspondingly to preserve the correctnumber of mandates in the House of Representatives of theParliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina electedfrom the territory of the respective Entity.centar za politološka istraživanjathe political science research centrewww.cpi.hr72
Maja Sahadžić: The Electoral System of Bosnia and Herzegovinasuvremene TEME, (2009.) God. 2, Br. 1CONTEMPORARY issues, (2009) Vol. 2, No. 1parliaments. 28 Mandate distribution is beingdone trough proportional representationformula so as in House of Representatives.Usually, (in federal states) upper house ofparliament is consisted of member that representsfederal units. But, that is not case inBosnia and Herzegovina where constituentpeople (along with entities) are being representedto be able to maintain equality ofthree constituent peoples.3. The President of the Federation of Bosniaand Herzegovina is head of executive governmentand is accompanied with two Vice –Presidents. They are being elected indirectlyby the Parliament of Federation of Bosniaand Herzegovina 29 , and each has to be from28 By Article 9.12a of the Electoral Law of Bosnia and HerzegovinaCroat and Bosniak Delegates to the House of Peoplesof the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovinafrom the Federation shall be elected by the Croat andBosniak Caucus of Delegates as appropriate to the House ofPeoples of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Croatand Bosniak Delegates to the House of Peoples of the Parliamentof the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina shallelect delegates from their respective constitutive people.Serb Delegates and Delegates of the Others to the Houseof Peoples of the Parliament of the Federation of Bosnia andHerzegovina shall not participate in the process of electingBosniak and Croat Delegates for the House of Peoples of theParliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina from theFederation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Delegates from theRepublic of Srpska (5 Serbs) to the House of Peoples of theParliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina shall beelected by the National Assembly of the Republic of Srpska.29 By Article 9.13 of the Electoral Law of Bosnia and Herzegovinain election of the President and Vice-presidentsof the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, at least onethird of the delegates of the constituent peoples caucusesto the House of Peoples of the Federation shall nominatedelegates for the office of the President and Vice-presidents.By Article 9.14 the joint slates for the office of President andVice-presidents of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovinashall be formed from among the candidates referred to inArticle 9.13. The House of Representatives of the Parliamentof the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina shall vote onone or several joint slates composed of three candidates includingone candidate from among each constituent peoples.The slate which receives the majority of votes in the Houseof Representatives of the Parliament of 72 the Federation ofBosnia and Herzegovina shall be elected if it gets majority ofvotes cast in the House of Peoples of the Parliament of theFederation of Bosnia and Herzegovina including majority ofvotes of each constituent peoples caucuses. By Article 9.15if the joint slate presented by the House of Representativesdoes not receive the necessary majority in the House of Peoples,this procedure will be repeated. If in the repeated procedurethe joint slate which receives majority of votes in theHouse of Representatives is rejected again in the House ofPeoples that joint slate shall be considered to be elected. ByArticle 9.16 delegates to the House of Peoples of the Parliamentof the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina from therank of Others may participate in the election of candidatesfor the President and Vice-president. However, on this occasion,no caucus of Others shall be formed and their vote shallnot be counted in calculating the specific majority in the caudifferentconstituent people. National consensushad to be reached in order to gainplace.4. The Parliament of the Federation of Bosniaand Herzegovina is constituted of Houseof Representatives of the Parliament of theFederation of Bosnia and Herzegovina andHouse of Peoples of the Federation of Bosniaand Herzegovina. House of Representativesof the Parliament of the Federationof Bosnia and Herzegovina is constituted of98 members that are being elected directlyby citizens of Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.30 Mandates distribution is done inthe same way as in House of Representativesof Parliamentary Assembly of Bosniaand Herzegovina. What is important is thatConstitution of Bosnia and Herzegovinaregulates that at least four members of eachconstituent people has to be represented inthis house. But, this is also non-consistentto nature of this house that has to representinterests of citizens of whole territoryof Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovinaalthough, theoretically it is justified by presentconditions in Bosnia and Herzegovina.House of Peoples of the Parliament of theFederation of Bosnia and Herzegovina isconsisted of 58 delegates that are being indirectlydelegated by cantonal assemblies. 31cuses of the constituent peoples. By Article 9.17 mandate ofthe President and Vice-president shall be for four (4) yearsprovided that the mandate does not expire earlier.30 By Article 10.1 of the Electoral Law of Bosnia and Herzegovinathe House of Representatives of the Parliament of theFederation of Bosnia and Herzegovina shall consist of ninetyeight (98) members, directly elected by voters registered tovote for the territory of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.The mandate of members of the House of Representativesof the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovinashall be four (4) years. A certain number of members shallbe elected from multi-member constituencies under the proportionalrepresentation formula set forth in Article 9.6 of thislaw. There shall be compensatory mandates from the territoryof the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina as a wholeaccording to Article 9.7 of this law. The House of Representativesof the Parliament of the Federation of Bosnia andHerzegovina shall determine, based solely on the guidelinesset forth in Article 10.2 of this law, what shall be the numberof mandates and boundaries for multi-member constituenciesand the number of compensatory mandates. A minimumnumber of four (4) members of each constituent people shallbe represented in the Federation House of Representatives.A voter shall have one ballot for the proportional representationmandates in the multi-member constituency for whichthe voter is registered. This ballot shall also count for theallocation of compensatory mandates under Article 10.5 ofthis law.31 By Article 10.10 of the Electoral Law of Bosnia and Herzegovinathe Cantonal Legislature shall elect fifty-eight (58)delegates to the House of Peoples, seventeen (17) fromcentar za politološka istraživanjathe political science research centrewww.cpi.hr73
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Uvodna riječsuvremene TEME, (2009.
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Jamshed Khattak, Aslam Khan: Unders
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Sabina Stan: The Discourse on the
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Sabina Stan: The Discourse on the
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ISSN 1847-2397 godiÅ¡te II broj 1 2009. | volume II number 1 2009

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