ELECTIONS HELD IN 2002
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| Predstavnicki dom | |
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| 5 October 2002 | |
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| Elections were held for all the seats in the House of Representatives on the normal expiry of the members' term of office. | |
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| Voters went to the polls on 5 October 2002 in general elections to elect the three-person joint Presidency, the 42 members of the House of Representatives and the members of the cantonal assemblies. In the Muslim-Croat Federation voters also elected their own House of Representatives, while in the Republika Srpska, they had to elect a new President and Vice-president as well as all the members of the People's Assembly. Members of the upper chamber, the House of the Peoples, are selected by the parliaments of the two entities: 10 from the Federation and five from the Republika Srpska.
Some 2.3 million voters were registered to choose from among 57 parties, nine coalitions, and three independent candidates. For the first time, the winners of the poll would govern for four years rather than two in previous elections. These were also the country's first polls since the end of the 1992-95 conflict that were run without help from the West. Non-nationalist parties had dominated the 11 November 2000 elections, thanks in part to intervention by officials of the international community. In the 2002 elections, however, opinion polls showed a different trend. Many Muslim voters were put off by media mudslinging between the Social Democrats (SDP) of Mr. Zlatko Lagumdzija and the Party for Bosnia and Herzegovina (SBiH) of Mr. Haris Silajdzic, while a number of Serbian voters felt that only the Serbian Democratic Party (SDS) could protect their interests. The Croatian Democratic Community (HDZ) remained the favourite in Herzegovina despite the emergence of the New Croatian Initiative (NHI) and some other small, moderate parties. During the campaign, many nationalists blamed the current authorities for failing to solve the deep-rooted problems of poverty and unemployment. About 54 per cent of the registered voters took part in the elections. Few incidents were reported and international observers generally described the vote as free and fair. Initial results indicated that the big winners were not the moderate parties favoured by the international community but rather the three nationalist parties that had led their respective communities before and during the war: the Muslim Party of Democratic Action (SDA), the Serbian Democratic Party (SDS) and the Croatian Democratic Community (HDZ). On 19 October 2002, the Bosnian election commission announced the final tallies from the general elections. The three largest nationalist parties, the SDA, the SDS, and the HDZ, were confirmed as the clear winners. In the 42-seat House of Representatives, the SDA won 10 seats, while the SDS and HDZ each took five seats. Eleven parties shared the remaining seats, including six for the Party for Bosnia and Herzegovina (SBiH), four for the Social Democrats (SDP) and three for the Independent Social Democrats (SNS). The new joint Presidency was formed by Mr. Sulejman Tihic (SDA), Mr. Mirko Sarovic (SDS) and Mr. Dragan Covic (HDZ). The three of them were sworn in in Sarajevo on 28 October 2002. On 9 December 2002, Mr. Sefik Dzaferovic of the SDA was elected as the new Speaker of the House of Representatives. |
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STATISTICS
| Round no 1 (5 October 2002): Elections results | |
| Number of registered electors | 2 343 075 |
| Voters | 1 299 021 (55.44%) |
| Blank or invalid ballot papers | 70 098 |
| Valid votes | 1 228 923 |
| Round no 1: Distribution of votes | |||
| Political Group | Votes | % | |
| Party of Democratic Action (SDA) | 232 325 | 17.88 | |
| Party for Bosnia-Herzegovina (SBiH) | 116 114 | 8.93 | |
| Coalition (Croatian Democratic Union, Demo-Christians) | 114 207 | 8.79 | |
| Serb Democratic Party (SDS) | 172 544 | 13.28 | |
| Socialist Democratic Party (SDP) | 112 258 | 8.64 | |
| Party of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) | 114 591 | 8.82 | |
| Party of Democratic Progress (PDP) | 53 177 | 4.09 | |
| Bosnian Party (BOSS) | 18 411 | 2.68 | |
| Serb Radical Party (SRS) | 24 559 | 1.89 | |
| Socialist Party of Republika Srpska (SPRS) | 22 126 | 1.70 | |
| Pensioners' Party of Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina | 17 588 | 1.35 | |
| Democratic People's Union (NDZ) | 16 454 | 1.26 | |
| Economic Block HDU for Prosperity | 16 052 | 1.23 | |
| New Croat Initiative (NHI) | 13 820 | 1.06 | |
| Round no 1: Distribution of seats | |||
| Political Group | Total | ||
| Party of Democratic Action (SDA) | 10 | ||
| Party for Bosnia-Herzegovina (SBiH) | 6 | ||
| Coalition (Croatian Democratic Union, Demo-Christians) | 5 | ||
| Serb Democratic Party (SDS) | 5 | ||
| Socialist Democratic Party (SDP) | 4 | ||
| Party of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) | 3 | ||
| Party of Democratic Progress (PDP) | 2 | ||
| Bosnian Party (BOSS) | 1 | ||
| Serb Radical Party (SRS) | 1 | ||
| Socialist Party of Republika Srpska (SPRS) | 1 | ||
| Pensioners' Party of Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina | 1 | ||
| Democratic People's Union (NDZ) | 1 | ||
| Economic Block HDU for Prosperity | 1 | ||
| New Croat Initiative (NHI) | 1 | ||
| Distribution of seats according to sex: | |
| Men: | 36 |
| Women: | 6 |
| Percent of women: | 14.29 |
| Distribution of seats according to age: | ||
| 31 to 40 years | 6 | |
| 41 to 50 years | 22 | |
| 51 to 60 years | 12 | |
| 61 to 70 years | 2 | |
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| Engineers | 12 | |
| Economists | 10 | |
| Legal professions | 8 | |
| Medical professions | 5 | |
| Political science | 2 | |
| University Professors | 2 | |
| Military | 1 | |
| Sociologists | 1 | |
| Technicians | 1 | |
Copyright © 2002 Inter-Parliamentary Union