Bosnia and Herzegovina. General Election 2018 Final report.

FINAL REPORT BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA

General Elections 7th October 2018 AEGEE Election Observation

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

4 Executive Summary

5 Political Context

6 Electoral Legal Framework and Election Administration

9 Youth Environment

10 Youth Candidates

12 Campaign Environment

13 Election Day

16 Key Findings and Recommendations

17 Mission Information and Acknowledgments

18 Coordinators and Observers

19 List of Interlocutors

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Executive Summary

From 3 to 9 October 2018, AEGEE Election Observation deployed 6 young Europeans with 5 different nationalities to Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) to assess youth engagement in the general elections of 7 October. BiH citizens voted in presidential, parliamentary and cantonal elections.

Approximately 30 polling stations were visited on Election Day. Observers were deployed in Sarajevo and in surrounding areas: Ilidža, Kobilja Glava and Vogošća. Prior to Election Day, the AEGEE Election Observation Team met several stakeholders working to support young candidates running for elections as well as youth engagement in politics in general. Many interlocutors stressed that young people are in a disadvantaged position compared to the rest of the population. Several issues impact on the active and democratic participation of youth in the electoral process governance and their general lack of trust in politics: divisions along ethnic lines, political hate speeches related to a war they did not experience and corruption in the judiciary. These issues seemed to have motivated young people to adopt a completely different approach of BiH politics, smashing the old divides they consider outdated to focus on topical subjects. Many stakeholders denunciated the complexity of the current system and suggested that a complete overhaul of the latter would be necessary in order to really engage young people.

On Election Day, access to polling stations was granted to all observer teams by polling station staff. Observers noted a high percentage of youth working in polling station committees. Polling station staff included both women and men in largely equal numbers.

Posters explaining voting guidelines were consistently available in all three national languages.

Thanks to internal quotas adopted by several political parties, a large number of young candidates ran for office. Nevertheless, the quotas appeared to be one of the few – if not the only – policies on youth participation in politics during the electoral period. Overall, a substantive youth agenda was missing from party programmes. In this context and due to the complexity of the election law and overall political system, young voters have low motivations to cast their vote.

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Political Context

Known to be one of the most complex political systems in the world1, BiH held its general elections on 7 October. Its complexity has marked this electoral process, as one of the reasons behind the lack of enthusiasm among young people. However, other factors were also identified and analysed in this report.

Signed in 1995, the Dayton Peace Agreement defined the Bosnian Constitution and created a central Bosnian government with a rotating presidency. As a federal parliamentary republic, the country is composed of the multi-ethnic Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) and the unitary Republika Srpska (RS), and is governed through a multi-ethnic system with Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs as the three constituent peoples.

This power sharing approach, known as consociational democracy, aims to create a stable democracy out of a divided political culture2. BrÄ?ko District holds a special status as a self-governing administrative region, established as a neutral area under joint Serb, Croat and Bosniak authority.

This electoral process was backed by a continuous set of expectations towards European Union (EU) integration. In June 2015, a Stabilization and Association Agreement between the EU and BiH entered into force. Although an application for BiH to join the EU was submitted on 15 February 2016, the country is currently facing challenges that undermine its capabilities to implement the necessary reforms.

In terms of political parties, BiH structure is almost exclusively divided along ethnic lines between Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs. Furthermore, the country presents an uncommonly numerous setting of political parties, mostly taking into account its small population. The Bosnian political scene has been marked by the presence of three main political parties: The Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) is predominant in RS, the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) is the main Bosniak (Muslim) nationalist party, and the Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina (HDZ) is the main Croat representative3.

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Nardelli A., Dzidic D. and Jukic E. (2014), Bosnia and Herzegovina: the world's most complicated system of government?, The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2014/oct/08/bosnia-herzegovina-elections-the-worlds-most-complicatedsystem-of-government 2 Lijphart, A. (1969), Consociational Democracy. World Politics, 21(2) 207 - 225.

3 BalkanInsight (2018), Profiles of the main political parties running in the 2018 general elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/key-political-parties-09-21-2018

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Electoral Legal Framework and Election Administration For the 2018 general elections, a total of 518 office holders were elected4. Citizens of BiH received four ballot papers including 128 political subjects – 58 political parties, 36 coalitions and 34 independent candidates. On the national level, there were ballots for the presidency and the House of Representatives of BiH. On the entity level, in the Federation of BiH the electorate voted for the House of Representatives and ten Cantonal Assemblies and in RS for the president, vice-presidents and for the National Assembly.

BiH is therefore served by two electoral systems: a majority system for the Presidency of BiH as well as for the president and vice-president of RS and a proportional representation system for the House of Representative of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH, for the House of Representatives of the Parliament of the FBiH, the National Assembly of RS and the Cantonal Assemblies of the FBiH5.

Voting conditions and voters rights Elections in BiH are governed by the 2001 Election Law of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BH, 23/01) as well as some specific other legal instruments relating to governance and parties or when it comes to elections occurring within RS6. The 2018 General Elections were ruled by the Rulebook on conduct of elections of Bosnia and Herzegovina adopted by the Electoral Commission in April 2018.

According to Article 14 of the Electoral Law of BiH, the voting age in both FBiH and RS is 18. Voter registration is passive: eligible voters are registered in the Central Voters Register (CVR). However, those who are deprived of legal capacity by court decision or those who committed serious crime are de facto taken off this list and unable to vote7.

For the 2018 General elections, 3,352,933 voters were registered on the CVR with a total population estimated at 3,503,554 people8.

Voters must present a valid identification document with a photo, such as an ID card, a passport or a driving licence, in order to be eligible to vote. Voters’ rights are protected

by Chapter 6 of the Election Law. According to this Chapter, any voters whose right to vote is violated can file a complaint with the Election Commission in written from no later than 48 hours after the violation occurred. The Election Commission is entitled to initiate a procedure upon receiving the complaint.

The right to vote remains marked by limitations in terms of ethnicity as each voter is allowed to vote only for one candidate according to their ethnicity: voters registered in 4

Three for the Presidency and 42 for Parliament of BiH, 98 for the Parliament of the FBiH and as well as 289 for the ten Cantons in the Federation. And finally, 3 for the President and vice presidents of RS together with 83 for the RS National Assembly. See BiH CEC “The 2018 General Elections – basic information”. http://www.izbori.ba/Documents/Opci_izbori_2018/Os/Osnovne_informacije_Opci_izbori_2018-eng.pdf 5 Central Election Commission of BiH (2018), Handbook for Observing elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina – 2018 General Elections.

6 The 2002 Election Law of Republika Srpska (RS, 34/02), the Law on Conflict of Interest in Governmental Institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the 2000 Law on Succession of a BH Presidency Member, and the 2012 Law on Political Party Financing are completing the General Election Law for the conduct of elections.

7 Election Law of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Article 1.6 (1) 8 Bosnia’s State Statistics Agency

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the FBiH can only vote for Bosniak and Croatian candidates, while voters registered to vote in the RS shall vote for a Serbian candidate. Women and men received equal treatment in terms of voting rights.

Complaints and rumours surrounding former elections regarding ballot box stuffing led to the introduction of transparent ballot boxes in the 2018 elections. Along with 10,000 ballot boxes, security seals were provided by international donors, with the intention to ensure greater transparency and citizens’ trust in the electoral process9.

Electoral management bodies The General Elections of BiH are regulated according to a three-tiered structure. On the lower level, the Polling Station Commissions (PSCs) are responsible for the general conduct of elections within each polling station10. Their work is supervised by the Municipal Electoral Commissions (MECs), which ensure the proper management of all the polling stations in the territory of municipalities. MECs are, among other things, responsible for the appointment of the PSCs and for their training11.PSCs and MECs are placed directly under the authority of the higher administration body, the Central Election Commission (CEC).

The CEC was established as a permanent body in August 2001, following the adoption of the new Election Law of BiH. It is an independent authority, which derives its powers from the Parliamentary Assembly. The CEC is composed of seven members who, as with the public bodies, are representatives of ethnic groups, namely two Croats, two Bosniaks, two Serbs and one “Other member”. This latter category represents members who declared not to belong to any of the three constituent peoples12. CEC President is appointed from its members according to the rotation principle and considering the chairperson’s ethnicity, allowing each member to serve for a term of twenty-one months.

According to the BiH Election Law13, the mandate of the CEC consists mainly of:      

Supervising the lawful operation of all election commissions and Polling Station Committees; Issuing administrative regulations, namely the decision to hold direct elections in BiH; The maintenance and update of the Central Voters Register for the territory of BiH; The certification of political parties, coalitions, and other lists of candidates for all levels of direct elections in BiH; Determining and verifying election results; Annulling elections in electoral units or individual polling stations whenever irregularities occur.

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N1 Sarajevo English Edition (2018), CEC: Transparent ballot boxes ensured for October election http://ba.n1info.com/a282062/English/NEWS/CEC-Transparent-ballot-boxes-ensured-for-October-election.html 10 Election Law of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Article 2.20 11 Election Law of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Article 2.13 12 IFES (2018), Elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2018 General Elections, Frequently Asked Questions. According to IFES, seventeen groups of officially recognized national minorities fall into “other” designation, namely: Albanians, Czechs, Germans, Hungarians, Italians, Jews, Macedonians, Montenegrins, Poles, Roma, Romanians, Russians, Ruthenians, Slovaks, Slovenians, Turks and Ukrainians.

13 Election Law of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Article 2.9

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Voting process PSCs are responsible for the administration of the voting and counting at polling stations on Election day. For these elections, 5,649 polling stations were designated14, each being composed of three or five members, depending on the precinct size. Each polling station is headed by a president who ensures the legality and security of the process and is responsible for the PCS’s overall activity. A day prior to Election day and at least 12 hours prior to the opening of the PSs, the CEC delivers polling materials to the PSCs at the polling stations. PSC that observe irregularities in the packages of ballot papers has to inform immediately the CEC thereof.

On Election Day, all polling station staff are present at the polling station at least an hour prior to opening of the polling station. Together with accredited observers, they are the only ones authorized in the polling station.

The order of action for voters inside the polling station is the following: 

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Identification – Identification of the voter by the PSC on the basis of a valid identification document (ID card, passport or driver’s license) and registration in the excerpt from the Central Voters Register; Signature of the excerpt by the voter – PSC read out loud of the voter’s name and the latter sign the excerpt; Issuing ballots – 4 ballots in total, the PSC member explains the correct way to cast the vote; Voting – individually, in the voting booth; Putting the ballot into the ballot box – one by one, all 4 ballots must be cast.

Although polling stations are supposed to close at 19:00, voters in line at the time of closing must be allowed to cast their vote. The member of the PSC in charge of order ensures that no one will vote after the closing of the polling station by standing at the end of the line at the closing time. The President closes the door immediately after the last voter in line cast his/her ballot and records the time of closing of the polling station in the Minutes.

The slot of the ballot box is sealed with a self-adhesive tape and signed by the President of the PSC. PSC are arranging tables into a working surface, open ballot boxes and put all their content onto tables for counting. Before the counting process begins, the President has to record all present accredited observers in the Minutes. Members of the PSC arrange tables into a working environment and start by counting the number of signatures on the excerpt of the CRV, the number of damaged ballots and the number of unused ballots. The counting process varies depending on whether the ballot corresponds to a majority system or an open list system.

Once the counting is done, The ZR Form completed and packed with the valid and invalid ballots into different protective bags for the corresponding elections15. Unused and damaged ballot papers are packed into respective large translucent protective bags.

14 OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR),

OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe, European Parliament and NATO Parliamentary Assembly (2018), International Election Observation Mission, Bosnia and Herzegovina, General Elections, 7 October 2018, Statement of Preliminary Findings and Conclusions, p. 5.

15 According to the Rulebook on the Conduct of Elections in BiH, Article 55: Ballot papers for the BiH Presidency shall be packed into Grey protective bags; ballot papers for the president and vice presidents of Republika Srpska shall be packed into Yellow protective bags; ballot papers for the BiH Parliamentary Assembly shall be packed into Blue protective bags; and ballot papers for the National Assembly of Republika Srpska shall be packed into Brown protective bags.

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Youth Environment

The current population of BiH is constituted by approximately 18% of young people, comprising those between 15 and 30 years old16. In terms of unemployment, young people are more affected than the rest of the population. For instance, in 2016, according to Eurostat, the national unemployment rate was approximately 25% whereas the youth unemployment rate was more than double at 55%17. These numbers greatly influence youth emigration, and the country has been suffering during from a “brain drain” over the past years. In 2018, 20,000 talented youths are said to have left Bosnia18.

Youth emigration is considered to be a serious issue in terms of stability and development for the country, but also in terms of political improvement. Young people are essential actors in shaping democracy and in paving the way toward sustainable peace and development. In new democracies, as in BiH, “younger generations are faced with the challenge of creating stability in the place of the chronic instability of the past”19.

Therefore, it is fundamental to include youth in the electoral process, as a step towards sustainable peace.

AEGEE Election Observation interlocutors attributed fragile youth legislation and a low willingness to include youths in political agenda setting as reasons for the disinterest among young people in politics and in the electoral process.

The policy frameworks related to youth suffer from an evident decentralisation as although both the FBiH and RS have government departments working on youth20, there is no national youth policy.21 The two entities have their own specific laws on youth as they “are on very different terms when it comes to youth policy development”22. A consistent national program, as well as a centralised body, would be highly recommended for the improvement of youth policy in BiH.

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https://www.populationpyramid.net European Commission (2018), Bosnia and Herzegovina 2018 Report: Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions - 2018 Communication on EU Enlargement Policy https://ec.europa.eu/neighbourhood-enlargement/sites/near/files/20180417-bosnia-and-herzegovinareport.pdf 18 N1 Sarajevo English Edition (2018), Inzko: Brain-drain from Bosnia likely to continue http://ba.n1info.com/a267466/English/NEWS/Inzko-Brain-drain-from-Bosnia-likely-to-continue.html 19 Dr. Lagos M. and Pr. Rose R. Young people in politics: A multi-continental survey, International IDEA Archive http://archive.idea.int/df/99df/daniela-int3.html 20 In RS there is the Ministry for Family, Sport and Youth and in the FBiH the Ministry of Culture and Sports is the government department working on youth issues.

21 Youth Policy Labs (2014), Factsheet: Bosnia and Herzegovina http://www.youthpolicy.org/pdfs/factsheets/bosniaherzegovina.pdf 22 Jasarevic J. (2011), Reviews on youth policies and youth work in the countries of South East Europe, Eastern Europe & Caucasus; Bosnia and Herzegovina, Council of Europe and European Union http://www.youthpolicy.org/national/Bosnia_2011_Youth_Policy_Briefing.pdf 17

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Youth Candidates

From the different interviews held with interlocutors, the AEGEE team concluded that in general, young people involved in politics as candidates were satisfied with the consideration given to consideration given to youths that are active in the electoral process. Furthermore, it is important to note that, political parties’ youth candidates were identified by interlocutors as the main actors taking positive action to promote youth success.

Indeed, in the absence of national regulations addressing youth issues in BiH, very little consideration is given to the fate of young candidates. Although Youth Laws have slowly developed in the different entities (2006 in RS, 2014 in the FBiH, and 2017 in the Brčko District), these laws are not fully implemented to date, making youth integration in political life difficult in practice.

Whilst the law does not provide for a mandatory quota for youth inclusion in candidate lists, most political parties have both a youth wing and a 30% quota for young people.

Despite this, according to the CEC figures, around 22.46% of all candidates were thirty or under23. Stakeholders have moreover raised discontentment about the poor legal framework for youth and the great need for reforms.

Nonetheless, several stakeholders mentioned that young people were more present on lists than before. All the young candidates AEGEE met with were extremely satisfied by the due consideration given to them within their party. Efforts had been made by several parties to enhance skills, knowledge and confidence towards elections by providing free trainings and seminars to their young members. Most candidates were given a proactive role in party campaign activities and in meetings with media and TV interviews.

The stakeholders did however raise concerns about the fact that high numbers of youths on party lists does not necessarily mean that youths are in a position to be easily elected.

Despite a large number of youths among political parties lists, few young candidates have effective access to elected positions.

This is amplified by the 2016 amendments to the Election Law where “the threshold for a candidate to be elected from an open list was increased from 5 to 20 per cent of the valid votes”24. Stakeholders found this provision particularly discouraging and obstructing for youths who would like to go into politics, corresponding closely to a de facto closed list25 Stakeholders stressed that public opinion continues to be quite pessimistic regarding youth engagement in politics. According to their analyses, public opinion in BiH entails that young people are involved in politics because of the high youth unemployment rate From the 7497 candidates, 1684 were thirty or under thirty years’ old – around 22,46% (BiH CEC “The 2018 General Elections – basic information”) http://www.izbori.ba/Documents/Opci_izbori_2018/Os/Osnovne_informacije_Opci_izbori_2018-eng.pdf 23

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OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights Election Observation Mission: Bosnia and Herzegovina (2018), “Interim Report” https://www.osce.org/odihr/elections/bih/397043?download=true 25

Pod Lupom (2018), First Preliminary Report on Long-term Election Observation.

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which engages youths to get into politics in order to have a job and accompanying benefits and opportunities, pushing them to follow a leader at any price. However, the young candidates AEGEE Election Observation met appeared to be engaged, dedicated and deeply interested in their work. The generalised negative opinion has been raised

by NGOs as a particularly discouraging factor for young people. According to interlocutors, this idea is interlinked with people’s and politicians’ fear of young people bringing change into politics.

Another point raised by interlocutors is that young parliamentarians tend to be more vocal, active and independent than their older colleagues. They bring forward their own ideas and are also more open to cooperation with other political parties. For them, it appears to be more rather business as usual. Changing this attitude would be beneficial in attracting more young people to politics.

An interesting fact observed by AEGEE Election Observation was that youth candidates’ political programmes did not especially target young people. Indeed, as they are more likely to get votes from the middle-aged electorate, young candidates sometimes tend to focus rather on these people than on youth in their agendas. The young candidates we spoke to claim that youth tend to be sceptical towards the political credibility of their peers. Young candidates believe that votes are more frequently received from parents wanting a better life for their own children.

Interlocutors also stressed the fact that young candidates have more chances to get elected in rural areas than in big cities like Sarajevo or Banja Luka, since they are more visible and closer to the population in small areas, where people know each other directly or through relatives.

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Campaign Environment According to the Law, the electoral campaign can be conducted over a period of 30 days before Election Day. In general, the campaign was free, with respect for fundamental rights and freedoms during the observed period. Campaign materials were present throughout Sarajevo, being more visible in cities and urban areas. Various methods of campaigning were used to reach out to the electorate: advertisements in the media, billboards, posters, distribution of leaflets and personal activities including public meetings or door-to-door campaign activities. Most parties actively used social media and platforms such as Twitter, Facebook or Instagram during their campaign in order to reach out to young voters. Through their accounts, they shared pictures and speeches but also promoted their events such as political gatherings and meetings.

According to the interviews conducted by the AEGEE Election Observation Mission, young candidates were largely involved in campaign activities. Their primary aim was to communicate in person with potential voters in order to hear their problems and requests.

Some of them focused mostly on urban areas as a reason of weak accessibility of rural parts of the country. Contrary to the majority of contestants who tended to address their own ethnic communities26, young candidates were offering solutions to a wide range of challenges, focusing more on youth issues rather than relying on ethnic divides. For example, most of them raised concerns about community-related educational divisions in schools and affecting young students, as well as migratory pressure resulting from youth unemployment in BiH. However, they also pointed out that addressing youth was difficult due to their mistrust and lack of interest in elections and politics in general.

Main irregularities during the campaign period concerned premature election campaigning. More than 300 cases were documented, linked to 32 political subjects27.

The interviewed interlocutors confirmed such irregularities and noted that the silence period before the election day was breached by several political subjects.

26 27

IDEA (2018), Bosnia and Herzegovina. https://www.idea.int/data-tools/country-view/57/40 OSCE (2018), Statement of Preliminary Findings and Conclusions – 08 October 2017

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Election Day

Election Day procedures were followed in most of the polling stations visited.

Nevertheless, some small irregularities and technical problems were observed by AEGEE Election Observation Mission. Some of the polling stations were very crowded and secrecy of voting may have been compromised by booths placed too close to each other or by people sitting next to them. In many polling stations visited, the number of booths was rather small, also contributing to crowded polling stations and leading to long queues and waiting times. A few cases of group or family voting were also observed. In one case, ballot boxes were not sealed properly. The staff of this polling station did not have proper accreditation, called specific voters from the crowd to cast their vote and did not fully cooperate with AEGEE observers by not allowing further questions to be asked.

Figure 1. Average number of Party Representatives and Non-Partisan Observers per Polling Station

Party Representatives

Non-Partisan Observers 0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

Overall, Election Day was peaceful and observed irregularities were of minor character.

Voting and counting procedures were observed by both domestic and international observers. Party agents and observers were also present in majority of the polling stations; the former in large numbers (see Figure 1). Nevertheless, in some polling stations visited by AEGEE teams, domestic observers and party agents also took on an active role during counting. Sometimes, they were interfering in the process, creating a risk of manipulation and evidencing a lack of training or interest on the part of polling stations staff in terms the non-interfering role of observers in counting procedures. These situations identify a continued need for training of all stakeholders in the electoral process: polling station staff, political party observers and domestic observers. However, apart from the occasional mismanagement, polling station staff officials were professional in most cases.

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Figure 2. Polling Station Committee Composition by Gender

Figure 3. Polling Station Committees' Presidents by Gender

47% 59%

Male

Male

Female

Female

The polling station staff tended to include both women and men in largely equal numbers (Figure 2). AEGEE also noted equal involvement of women in positions with high levels of responsibility, with almost half of all PSC presidents being female (Figure 3) .Deployed observer teams estimated a high number of young polling station officials, at around 46% on average (Figure 4). AEGEE also spoke to several young polling stations presidents, all of whom said they were very interested in assisting the political process. One mentioned that she wanted to help deter fraud by serving her local community where she knew people. Another mentioned that genuine interest in the process was the motivation for most young people, mostly students, to volunteer as polling station staff, but that some were only doing it for the money.

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Figure 5. Average percentage of young voters per Polling Station

100 80

Figure 4. Polling Station Committee Composition by Age

60 40 46%

20 0 Total of voters

Other

Young voters (<30 years old)

Youth (<30 years old)

The AEGEE Election Observation team was informed by a local election commissioner in IlidĹža of challenges in recruiting staff. He mentioned that several citizens were hesitant to apply because they were afraid that mistakes they made during the counting process would lead to legal charges against them personally. Indeed, the most c ommon mistakes of the entire process, according to the commissioner, were made in adding up numbers.

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According to AEGEE Election day observations, around 46% of the polling staff members were under 30 years old and numerous presidents of PSCs were young. These numbers were observed with great positivity, showing the inclusion of youth in the management of the electoral process.

Nonetheless, during its mission, AEGEE teams observed a relatively low turnout of young voters on Election Day in comparison with the overall turn-out28. Only 21% of the voters were identified as being young, which is in accordance with stakeholderâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s statements that youths are considered to be quite sceptical towards elections in the country. This information is supported by UNDP figures, in which 37.8% of young respondents affirm that the political situation in the country has deteriorated over the past two years29.

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According to AEGEE data collection, the turnout of young voters (people between 18 and 30 years old) in the polling stations observed amounted to 21%.

29 UNDP in Bosnia and Herzegovina (2017), Socio-economic Perceptions of Young People in Bosnia and Herzegovina http://www.ba.undp.org/content/dam/bosnia_and_herzegovina/docs/Publications/Socioekonomske%20perceprije%20mladih%20u%20BiH_ENG_priprema.pdf

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Key Findings and Recommendations

Based on the analysis and observations covering the period before, during and after Election Day, AEGEE Election Observation suggests the following recommendations to the electoral stakeholders of BiH:



Political parties are recommended to continue to work on the involvement and inclusion of young people through their structure and trainings. An official political party quota could be developed to allow the full and effective participation of youth in party lists.



Further action is recommended to increase the involvement of youth throughout the electoral cycle. Engaging young people in elections, as seen by the high candidacy rate, should be further encouraged at all political levels and positions. The engagement of youth in electoral processes might be furthered by the inclusion of a number of seats for young people per list, avoiding not only hurdles in their election, as with the minimum threshold of 20% but also promoting youth participation in decision making processes.



The EMB, specifically the CEC, is recommended to cooperate with youth focused civil society groups to promote youth participation in the management of electoral processes.



Consistency in terms of adherence to the election law and CEC guidelines could be further enhanced. This could be facilitated through better training of polling station staff, political party observers as well as domestic observers especially in relation to enforcing secrecy of the vote and non-interference in counting as well as voting procedures.



Voter education should be included in school curriculums in a centralised manner, provided for through a national level framework in both entities. Encouraging not only youths to be part of the electoral process as voters, observers or polling station staff but most importantly, to develop awareness about the electoral and political system and about voting procedures.



Entities’ Youth Laws, should be fully implemented or developed at a national level, allowing the entire youth population of BiH to be involved in the electoral process in equal manner.



Further efforts could be made to safeguard against cases of family voting.

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Mission Information and Acknowledgments

AEGEE Election Observation was set up in the Autumn of 2013 by young people inspired to act collectively following a meeting with OSCE officials. Since the pilot mission to the Ukrainian Presidential Elections in May 2014, more than twenty Election Observation Missions (EOMs) have been organised, involving over 500 observers and coordinators.

AEGEE Election Observation is run by a volunteer Project Team consisting of 16 ambitious young Europeans. As an independent youth initiative, AEGEE Election Observation is dedicated to contributing to the transparency of the electoral process and to enhancing the quality of democracy in Europe, whilst focusing specifically on youth engagement in the political and electoral process.

AEGEE Election Observation provides a youth perspective on elections in Europe by deploying young people on election observation missions to specifically assess youth engagement in electoral processes. The current AEGEE Election Observation Mission was present in BiH from 3 to 9 October 2018 and was accredited by the Central Election Commission. Before deployment, observers researched youth participation in the electoral process from several angles. AEGEE Election Observation deployed 6 observers from 5 different nationalities, including 2 Mission Coordinators and one Project Team member. In the country, observers met stakeholders to discuss the political and electoral context of BiH, with a special focus on youth participation.

AEGEE Election Observation is grateful to the electoral authorities of BiH as well as the following organisations for their support: the Institute for Youth Development (KULT), the Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD) and the Delegation of the European Union in Sarajevo. We are equally grateful to all stakeholders AEGEE Election Observation had the chance to meet and who shared their knowledge and opinions as party candidates, polling station staff and other international, national and political party observers.

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List of Coordinators and Observers

Mission Coordinators Apolline Bonfils (France) Cyntia Simões da Silva (Portugal) Short-term observers Vojtěch Šmolík (Czech Republic) Alberto Fontenla Pita-Baamonde (Spain) Manon Vinclaire (France) Charlotte Wagenaar (The Netherlands)

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List of Interlocutors

Political Candidates: Ibrhaim Kosovak - Naša stranka Samir Arnautović - Stranka penzionera political party Jasmina Durmišević - Socijaldemokratska partija Bosne i Hercegovine

Organisations: Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD) Delegation of the European Union Institute for Youth Development KULT

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