The Central Election Commission opened Bosnia and Herzegovina's general elections on Sunday, 4 October, with more than 3.4 million people eligible to vote for the three members of the presidency, national lawmakers, and the leaders of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska. [E1][E2][E9][E16] The commission closed the central voter roll at midnight on 6 May with 3,414,364 names. [E10]
The commission, which oversees the vote, had registered 75 political parties and four independent candidates as eligible to participate. [E8] Zeljka Cvijanovic, the current Serb member of the presidency from the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, is running for a second term. [E6] Milorad Dodik, the former Republika Srpska president who leads that party, is banned from public office after being convicted of defying the international envoy who oversees the peace agreement. [E7][E18]
After meeting Russia's president Vladimir Putin in Moscow, Dodik leads a party likely to win in Republika Srpska. [E19] He is known for separatist moves and for challenging the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the decisions of former High Representative Christian Schmidt. [E7] Most voters are focused on everyday problems, while some mainstream politicians are whipping up tensions from the 1992-95 war. [E20]
This year's vote uses new election technology: voters identified with biometric devices and ballot papers scanned rather than simply placed in boxes. [E3][E4][E5][E11] The new digital technology, introduced to address earlier concerns about vote tampering, delayed the opening of polling stations in Republika Srpska. [E11][E17]
In Bijeljina, city election commission president Dijana Savić Božić told BN TV that 153 stations opened on time and 30 had not started because of the new voting technology, with seven mobile teams in the field; she called voters to the polls until 19:00. [E12][E13] Banja Luka stations opened at 07:00, with the city commission recording voting at 259 stations and 192,366 eligible voters. [E14][E15]