Elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina
First woman elected to the Presidency
On October 02, 2022, elections took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina for all democratic offices at the national, entity and cantonal level. 7,258 women and men stood for election. Around 3.3 million voters had the right to vote. The parliamentary elections took place for the ninth time and presidential elections for the eighth time.
Željko Komšić and Denis Bećirović were elected to the seat of the Croatian and Bosniak member of the Presidency, whereas the Serbian seat was won by Željka Cvijanović. This was the first time that a woman was elected member of the Presidency. She will succeed Milorad Dodik, who has attracted attention due to his separatist rhetoric and who ran for president of Republika Srpska (RS) during these elections. At the moment of writing of this report, the counting of the votes for the election of members of parliaments and president and deputy president of RS is still ongoing.
Shortly after the closing of the polling stations, the High Representative announced several reforms. Christian Schmidt amended the Electoral Law in the part related to the House of Peoples of the Parliament of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and adapted procedural provisions in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH), which, according to him, aims at resolving the institutional deadlock that had been in place for years. The Embassy of the United States of America and the Embassy of United Kingdom reacted positively to Schmidt's decisions, while the Delegation of the European Union (EU) clearly distanced itself from them in a statement.