The parties have nominated 7,725 candidates for the General Elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) scheduled for Oct. 12. Of these, 488 are incumbents in cantonal, entity or state positions.
The lists were collected by a citizen association UG “Zašto ne”, Transparency International BiH and by the Center for Investigative Reporting in Sarajevo (CIN), with assistance from 15 civil society organizations across BiH.
The governing parties at the entity and state levels (SDP, SDA, NSRzB, HSP, SNSD, SP RS, DNS, SBB, SDS, HDZ BiH and HDZ 1990) nominated 3,642 persons together with their coalition partners. Of these, 395 are in office in this term at the cantonal, entity or state level.
Graphic: Zašto NeAnalysis shows that most of these candidates are highly placed on the party lists and they are the most visible faces in the parties’ campaigns, all of which implies favoritism. The way party lists are constructed gives the impression that “the returning” candidates have better chances to win or remain in the office. On the other hand, one gets an impression that the parties uses new, especially young candidates, to fill up the place on the lists and to attract votes.
SDP has the most returning candidates on its lists or 103 persons who are in office during the ongoing term. SDA has nominated 79 persons who held office during this term, while SNSD has nominated 40 “returning” candidates; HDZ BiH – 63; SBB – 33; People’s Party Work for Betterment – 22; HDZ 1990 – 20; SDS – 1;, DNS with the coalition partners – six; SP RS – three; and HSP with coalition partners has seven candidates.
The most candidates who have held an office from the parties not sharing power during the 2010 — 2014 term was the Party for BiH with 19. It is followed by PDP in coalition with NDP with 11, while the Democratic Front has nine “returning” candidates.
Published Sept. 22, 2014
