BOSNIA: OCTOBER NATIONAL ELECTION PRIMER

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 SARAJEVO 001891 SIPDIS SIPDIS EUR (DICARLO),D (SMITH),P (BAME),EUR/SCE (HOH, SAINZ, FOOKS),NSC FOR BRAUN, USNIC FOR WEBER, GREGORIAN, OSD FOR FLORY E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PREL BK SUBJECT: BOSNIA: OCTOBER NATIONAL ELECTION PRIMER SARAJEVO 00001891 001.2 OF 004 ¶1. (U) This is the first in a planned series of cables covering themes relevant to the October 1, 2006 national elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina. ¶2. (U) SUMMARY: Bosnia will hold national elections on October 1, 2006. Bosnia's major political parties, all ethnically-based, will compete for power at the State (i.e., national),entity (Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska),and local level (Federation Cantons). At the State and entity levels, it is unlikely that any party will win an outright majority, which means a period of intense negotiation among the largest parties will follow the elections as they attempt to form coalition governments. Since the 2002 national elections, there have been two major changes to BiH,s election law. The first is a new direct voter registration system, which has the potential to increase turnout, at least in absolute terms, from the 2002 national elections. The second is a three percent threshold for parties to be represented in State, entity and cantonal legislatures, which should eliminate the number of small parties represented in the State and entity legislatures. END SUMMARY INTRODUCTION -------------- ¶3. (U) On October 1, 2006 Bosnia will hold national elections. Voters will be casting ballots for the following offices: -- The three members of Bosnia and Herzegovina's (BiH) State-level Tri-Presidency; -- The President and Vice President of the Republika Srpska (RS); -- The BiH House of Representatives, the lower house of the State-level legislature; -- The Federation (FBiH) House of Representatives, which is the lower house of Federation legislature; -- Republika Srpska National Assembly (RSNA),the lower house of the RS legislature; and, -- Cantonal legislatures in all 10 Federation cantons (Note: Cantons exist only in the Federation. Their legislatures are unicameral bodies). WHO IS COMPETING? -------------- ¶4. (U) BiH's political parties traditionally have been affiliated with one of the three groups of constituent peoples of BiH, often lobbying exclusively along ethnic/nationalist lines. Although bread and butter issues, such as unemployment, pensions and infrastructure development matter to the Bosnian electorate, political parties often resort to nationalist messages to mobilize voters. Judging by political campaigning thus far, this election will be no exception. BiH's major political parties are: -- Party for Democratic Action (SDA): Generally pro-Western and pro-reform Bosniak party led by President Sulejman Tihic. The SDA has a sizable and influential Bosniak nationalist base, which emphasizes religious identity. -- Party for Bosnia and Herzegovina (SBiH): Newly-invigorated Bosniak nationalist party led by former PM Haris Silajdzic. Its primary electoral issue is opposition to U.S.-backed constitutional reform. -- Social Democratic Party (SDP): Center-left, mostly Bosniak party with multi-ethnic leadership, led by former PM Zlatko Lagumdzija. Popular in Sarajevo and other urban areas, SDP is the only major party running an issue-based campaign. -- Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ): The largest, most well organized and powerful Croat political party, led by former President Dragan Covic. -- HDZ-1990: A new breakaway, ultra nationalist Croat party whose leadership left HDZ in March 2006 to oppose U.S.-backed constitutional reform, which HDZ and Covic backed. -- Serb Democratic Party (SDS): Historically the most popular, ultra-nationalist Serb party, SDS has emerged as a SARAJEVO 00001891 002.2 OF 004 constructive, moderate voice under President Dragan Cavic. -- Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD): Center-moderate Serb party led by RS Prime Minister Milorad Dodik. -- Party of Democratic Progress of the Republika Srpska (PDP): Led by FM Mladen Ivanic, PDP RS tends to focus on economic progress in the RS. A small party, PDP could provide the crucial margin of seats required for larger parties seeking to form coalitions at the State level and in the RS. -- Patriotic Block (Coalition between the Social Democratic Union (SDU) and Bosnian Party (BOSS): Bosniak parties that allied with SBiH and helped defeat constitutional amendments in April, but broke away after refusing to support Silajdzic's presidential candidacy. May play the role of spoiler in the race for the Bosniak presidency seat. -- Croatian Party of Rights (HSP-Djapic-Jurisic)/New Croat Initiative (NHI) Coalition: The coalition, which unites two smaller Croat parties, has shied away from nationalist rhetoric (especially in comparison with the other Croat parties),but opposed constitutional reform because it did not eliminate the entity structure. -- A total of 47 parties are participating in the election (compared to 57 in the 2002 national election),but several have formed coalitions, such as the HSP-NHI coalition listed above, which means voters will have 36 options on polling day. ELECTING THE BiH TRI-PRESIDENCY AND RS PRESIDENT -------------- --- ¶5. (U) Voters will directly elect the three members of the BiH Tri-Presidency, who each represent one of the constitutionally-recognized "constituent peoples" of BiH: one Serb, one Croat and one Bosniak (Muslim). Voters in the RS, regardless of their ethnicity, may only vote for Serb candidates for the Tri-Presidency Likewise, Serb candidates for the Tri-Presidency must come from the RS. Voters in the FBiH, again, regardless of their ethnicity, may only vote for either a Croat or Bosniak candidate for the Tri-Presidency Croat and Bosniak candidates must come from the FBiH. These territorial and ethnic criteria run afoul of accepted international electoral practices, but are enshrined in the 1995 Dayton Constitution. (Note: One of the proposed amendments to the constitution supported by the U.S. but defeated in the BiH parliament in April would have allowed for citizens throughout Bosnia to choose among presidential candidates from all ethnic groups. End Note.) ¶6. (U) The winners of the Tri-Presidency are determined by a simple "first past the post" vote. Current members of the rotating (every eight months) Tri-Presidency are Sulejman Tihic (Bosniak, SDA),Ivo Miro Jovic (Croat, HDZ) and Borislav Paravac (Serb, SDS). Notably, SDP has chosen not to run a Bosniak candidate, but will run Zeljko Komsic, a Croat, in the FBiH and a Serb, Jugoslav Jovicic in the RS. If Komsic wins, this would mean no Tri-Presidency seat for the traditional nationalist Croat parties, something that would be unprecedented in post-war BiH. Other major party candidates are: -- Bosniak: Sulejman Tihic (SDA),Haris Silajdzic (SBiH), Mirnes Ajanovic (Patriotic Bloc),and Muhamed Cengic (National Party for Progress through Work, or RZB, a small party backed by a prominent meatpacking family). -- Croat: Ivo Miro Jovic (HDZ),Bozo Ljubic (HDZ-1990),Zeljo Komic (SDP),and Mladen Ivankovic-Ljianovic (RZB). -- Serb: Mladen Bosic (SDS),Nebojsa Radmanovic (SNSD),Zoran Tesanovic (PDP),and Nedo Duric (Democratic Movement of Srpska),and Jugoslav Jovicic (SDP). ¶7. (U) At the entity level, RS voters will choose the RS's President and Vice President in a "first past the post" ballot. The current President of the Republika Srpska is SDS Dragan Cavic. ELECTING STATE, ENTITY AND CANTONAL LEGISLATURES -------------- --- ¶8. (U) Parties are awarded seats in the lower houses of the SARAJEVO 00001891 003.2 OF 004 State, entity and cantonal legislatures proportionally within individual, multi-member electoral units (i.e., districts/constituencies). (Note: At the State level there is an extremely complicated system for awarding a small number of compensatory seats within each constituency as well. End Note). Voters may vote for a party, or they may vote for individual candidates within the same party. Split ticket voting (i.e., choosing individual candidates from different political parties) is not permitted. Parties rank their candidate lists within each electoral unit so that a vote for the party ticket gives the candidates at the top of the list the best chances of winning a seat. However, the open list system creates an opportunity for voters to support particular candidates, rather than only a party's preferred slate. For instance, if a party wins 10 seats, but a candidate ranked lower than position 10 on the list receives more votes than a candidate ranked 1-10 by the party, the lower-ranked candidate wins one of the ten seats. ¶9. (U) The upper houses of legislatures at all three levels, the House of Peoples at the State level, the Federation House of Peoples, and the RS Council of Peoples, are indirectly elected. The popularly elected legislatures form the governments, but at the State and entity levels, no party is likely to win an outright majority. In these instances, parties will have to negotiate coalitions. Once formed, the governing coalitions in the State and Federation House of Representatives, the RS National Assembly and cantonal legislatures, will elect the Chairman of the Council of Ministers (Prime Minister),the President and Prime Minister of the Federation, the RS Prime Minister and the cantonal prime ministers, respectively. CURRENT DISTRIBUTION OF POWER: BiH HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES -------------- -------------- ¶10. (U) The State House of Representatives consists of 42 delegates, two-thirds of whom are elected from the FBiH, and one-third from the RS. There are five multi-member electoral constituencies in the FBiH and three in the RS. The current balance of power is: -- SDA: 9 delegates -- SBiH: 6 delegates -- SDS: 4 delegates -- HDZ-1990: 4 delegates -- SNSD: 3 delegates -- SDP: 3 delegates -- HDZ: 1 delegate -- PDP: 1 delegate -- Others parties: 11 delegates. RS NATIONAL ASSEMBLY -------------- ¶11. (U) The RSNA consists of 83 delegates who are elected from the RS. There are six RSNA constituencies. The current balance of power is: -- SDS: 24 delegates -- SNSD: 19 delegates -- PDP: 9 delegates -- SDA: 6 delegates -- SDP: 3 delegates -- SBiH: 3 delegates -- Other parties: 19 delegates (Note: Votes for Bosniak parties in the RS generally come from Bosniak returnees and internally displaced persons registered to vote as absentees in the RS, but who reside in the FBiH. End Note.) FBiH HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES -------------- ¶12. (U) The Federation Parliament's House of Representatives has 98 delegates who are elected by voters in the Federation. There are 12 FBiH House of Representative constituencies. The current balance of power is: -- SDA: 32 delegates -- SDP: 15 delegates -- SBiH: 15 delegates SARAJEVO 00001891 004.2 OF 004 -- HDZ, HNZ 8 delegates -- HDZ-1990: 6 delegates -- SNSD: 1 delegate -- Other parties: 21 KEY ELECTORAL CHANGES -------------- ¶13. (U) Various changes to the election law, originally passed in 2001, have rationalized aspects of BiH's electoral system. Nevertheless, the electoral system remains complicated and unwieldy, much like the multi-layered government created by the Dayton Constitution. One key change is the automatic (passive) registration of all citizens over the age of 18 upon receipt of their national identity card (CIPS card). The result is that there are 400,000 more registered voters this year than there were for the 2004 municipal elections. Experts expect another 100,000 registrations prior to election day (Note: The deadline to receive one's CIPS card and be eligible to vote is August 18. End note.) ¶14. (U) A second significant change, adopted in April 2006, requires that a party must receive at least three percent of the votes within an electoral unit at the State, entity and cantonal level to be awarded seats in the respective legislature. This change will make it difficult for smaller parties to win seats, particularly at the State level. Smaller parties likely will retain seats in entity and/or cantonal assemblies where their power base lies and where crossing the three percent threshold will be less of an obstacle. This should create a more rational slate of parties capable of forming a State-level governing coalition, but may result in odd power dynamics between the cantons and the entity in the FBiH. CEFKIN