Bosnia and Herzegovina - October 2022

On 2 October citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina voted in general elections, recording a low voter turnout of 51.5 per cent. As votes were still being counted, the Office of the High Representative (OHR), an international body set up at the end of the Bosnian War in 1995, enacted changes to the constitutional and electoral law of the Federation. The OHR was able to impose the changes in the exercise of the Bonn powers accorded to the Office in 1997. The timing of the move was widely criticized. The OHR had earlier announced part of the reform package in July 2022, following protracted debate and deadlock between political parties. According to the OHR, the new measures aim to alleviate gridlock in key institutions and to give ethnic minorities, beyond the country’s three constituent peoples, greater political representation. Milorad Dodik faced allegations of vote-rigging in his bid for President of Republika Srpska, amid wider election fraud complaints brought by the opposition, and was declared the winner on 27 October, further to a recount. 

Sources: Office of the High Representative, Al Jazeera, London School of Economics, International IDEA, Office of the High Representative, Crisis Group