Bosnia and Herzegovina
Europe · ba
A three-member Presidency with one Bosniak, one Croat and one Serb member, plus a state-level House of Representatives and separate assemblies for the two entities — the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska. Proportional representation with open lists, on a four-year cycle.
Profil révisé pour la dernière fois le July 23, 2026
Bosnia is the clearest working example of the distinction this database keeps everywhere: an election can be administered competently and still not be free and fair. Voting has been technically well run for years, yet who may stand for the highest offices is decided by ethnicity, and the European Court of Human Rights has ruled that arrangement discriminatory five times over since 2009 without it being changed.
Comment le vote fonctionne aujourd'hui
- Âge de vote
- 18 et plus
- Inscription des électeurs
- Automatique
- Pièce d'identité
- Tout document d’identité
- Vote obligatoire
- Non
- Vote par correspondance
- Restreint
- Vote anticipé
- Restreint
- Vote en ligne
- Non disponible
- Vote depuis l'étranger
- Disponible pour tous
The Central Election Commission maintains the roll from civil records; voters present an identity document. Postal voting is available to citizens abroad and to displaced voters registered for their pre-war municipality — a legacy of the war that still shapes results in some constituencies. Which office a citizen may stand for depends on declared ethnicity and on which entity they live in.
Comment le droit de vote a évolué
Chaque entrée consigne un changement dans les personnes pouvant voter, ou dans les modalités de vote — qu'il s'agisse d'élargissements, de restrictions ou de réformes procédurales.
- 1945Extension
Universal adult suffrage regardless of sex, as a republic within socialist Yugoslavia — in elections that were not competitive.
- 1990Réforme
The first multi-party elections, won along largely ethnic lines; the war followed within eighteen months.
- 1995Réforme
The Dayton Agreement created the present constitutional order, reserving the Presidency and the House of Peoples for the three 'constituent peoples' and tying candidacy to both ethnicity and place of residence.
- 2009Restriction
In Sejdić and Finci, the European Court of Human Rights held that barring a Roma and a Jewish citizen from standing for the Presidency and the House of Peoples violated the Convention. The judgment remains unimplemented, and four further rulings have since affirmed it.
Garanties sur le dépouillement
- Type de bulletin
- Bulletins papier
- Audit postélectoral
- Recomptage obligatoire
- Administration électorale
- Commission indépendante
- Observateurs nationaux
- Oui
- Observateurs internationaux
- Oui
Paper ballots hand-counted at polling stations, with a substantial share re-counted centrally by the Central Election Commission; scanning of results forms was introduced after the 2022 cycle to speed verification. Observation is extensive, both domestic and international.
À savoir
- A citizen who declares no ethnicity, or one outside the three constituent peoples, cannot stand for the Presidency at all — the restriction the European Court of Human Rights has now condemned five separate times.
- Because the Presidency seats are tied to entity as well as ethnicity, a Croat living in Republika Srpska cannot stand for the Croat seat, and a Serb in the Federation cannot stand for the Serb one.
Élections dans la base de données
- 2026Bosnia and Herzegovina 2026 General ElectionElection Watch
Sources
- General elections in BiH scheduled for Sunday, October 4, 2026— Central Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Sejdić and Finci v. Bosnia and Herzegovina — judgment— European Court of Human Rights
- It is high time to execute the Sejdić and Finci group of judgments— Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights