Local Elections Take Place in Bosnia

Local elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BETAPHOTO/HINA/FENA/EMIR BURILOVIC)

Local elections in which there were three million eligible voters were held in Bosnia and Herzegovina on Oct. 6 to elect councilors to city and municipal assemblies and mayors in both entities, along with councilors to the Brcko District Assembly.

This year's local vote was held to pick members of a total of 58 municipal assemblies in Republika Srpska, 53 municipal councils in the Muslim-Croatian Federation, 111 mayors, 21 city councils in the Federation, ten town halls in Republika Srpska, and 32 mayors along with the Brcko District Assembly. Additionally, guaranteed seats for national minority members include 23 candidates in 21 municipalities. In total, Bosnian citizens voted for 3,200 councilors and 143 mayors.

The Central Electoral Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina decided to postpone elections in five Federation municipalities affected by floods - Jablanica, Konjic, Kiseljak, Kresevo and Fojnica.

The Commission ran a pilot project for using new technology at several hundred polling places across Bosnia to ensure the integrity of the elections. The new technology was used at 458 polling stations, which is approximately ten percent of the overall number. Fingerprint identification technology was used to ID voters i.e. for voter authentication and result transmission at 165 polling stations, while optical scanners and automatic ballot counting were used at 145 polling stations.

The preliminary results are expected during the night.