Bosnia Still Awaits Official Election Results
By Mladen Lakic
Almost a week after the general election in Bosnia, the Central Election Committee, CIK, has still not released the final results – prompting some critics to say that the process is too slow.
While Bosnia awaits the final results of the general elections of 2018, many experts and even MPs are complaining that the counting process is taking to much time and must improve.
Electoral law prescribes that the official results of the October 7 election must be published no later than November 7, which marks the one-month legal deadline.
The Central Electoral Committee, CIK, is obliged to publish the first results by midnight on election day, and to publish new reports on counted votes twice the following day.
Over the next five days, the CIK publishes new results every 24 hours and after that, every 48 hours, until the final report appears.
Results published before that deadline are considered preliminary and unconfirmed, although they give a clear perspective of the final outcome.
Once the final results are published, Bosnian officials have six months to form governments on all levels.
However, many argue that the process could and should be shorter and quicker.
“The whole election system in Bosnia can be improved and I personally advocated some changes, but the ruling parties did not support those ideas,” Sasa Magazinovic, an opposition MP in the state-level parliament, told BIRN.
Magazinovic recalled one idea proposed earlier this year, when Bosnia had a chance to get video surveillance and scanners during polling.
“Scanning the ballot papers could prevent any kind of manipulation, and online identification can also prevent someone from voting under the name of another person and in the end, mean a faster process of counting,” Magazinovic said.
Based on around 95 per cent of votes counted and published on October 10, the three members of Bosnia’s state presidency will be Sefik Dzaferovic – for the Bosniaks, Zeljko Komsic- for the Croats, and Milorad Dodik – for the Serbs.
In the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, one of the two entities in the country, the Bosniak Party of Democratic Action, SDA, won 210,787 votes, the Social Democratic Party of Bosnia, SDP, 118,159 and the Croatian Democratic Union 117, 506.
The Democratic Front won 77,952 votes, the Alliance for a Better Future, 55,340, Our Party, 38,240, the Independent Bloc, 35,902, the Movement of Democratic Action, 33,257 and the Party of Democratic Activities 26,352.
In the Serb-dominated entity, Republika Srpska, the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, SNSD, won 227,500 votes, the Serbian Democratic Party, SDS, 145,192, the Party of Democratic Progress, 75,432, the Democratic People’s Alliance 60, 424 and the Socialist Party, 27,339.
A total of 3,352,933 registered voters was able to choose between 58 parties, 36 coalitions, and 34 independent candidates. The turnout was 53.26 per cent, unofficial data show.
