Central Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina (CIK BiH), gave information that they verified a total of 804 candidate lists with 7,497 candidates and 73 candidate lists for allocation of compensation mandates with a total of 842 candidates. In total, all candidates will compete to get 518 mandates.
“In the process of validation of political subjects for participation in the 2018 General Elections, CEC verified the applications of 69 political parties, 34 independent candidates and 36 coalitions. It is important to note that the names of political parties that appear in elections only within the coalition will not be present on the ballot paper. Namely, 128 political subjects (58 political parties, 36 coalitions and 34 independent candidates) will be on the ballot list, ” Maksida Piric from CEC said.
In the BiH public space, it is argued that politics is the most profitable profession. On this subject, political analyst Adnan Huskic states that one of the reasons that people enter so easily in politics is because the systemic circumstances encourage more and more people to approach political parties, especially because of the low election threshold.
“There is a relatively low electoral threshold of three percent in BiH, and in neighboring countries, it is five percent. For instance, there are countries where the electoral threshold is even bigger, such as Turkey. In general, a low electoral threshold is intended to ensure the plurality of political actors,” Huskic explained.
However, this is not the only reason, and Huskic adds that one of the reasons is because political parties are managing all the process from top-to-bottom.
“Politics, hence functions that it enables, is not only the most desirable employer but parties are in disposal of the budgets and they are managing public companies,” Huskic says, adding that when the system of public procurement is taken into consideration, it is evident that political parties control it as well.
There are companies that exist solely and exclusively to be on tenders, there is a complete private sector that is related to them. Political parties are alfa and omega, so politics is so attractive in BiH, that is axactly why it is the solution to all problems,” Huskic concludes.
