2020 Bosnian municipal elections

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All 145 municipal/city mayors All 145 municipal/city councils
Registered	3,283,194
Turnout	50.40% ( 3.48pp)
First party Second party Third party   Leader Milorad Dodik Bakir Izetbegović Dragan Čović Party SNSD SDA HDZ BiH Mayors 44 27 22 Change 11 7 3 Percentage 30.34% 18.62% 15.17%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   IND Leader Mirko Šarović Nermin Nikšić None Party SDS SDP BiH Independent Mayors 16 9 5 Change 1 9 Percentage 11.03% 6.20% 3.44%

Municipal elections were held inBosnia and Herzegovina on 15 November 2020 to elect mayors and assemblies in 145municipalities andcities.^[2] Originally scheduled for 4 October, they were postponed due to a lack of funds.^[3][4][5]

Occurring under the backdrop of theCOVID-19 pandemic, they came less than a year following the delayed formation of thestate government.^[6] National coalition partners and the hegemonicBosniak,Serb andCroat political parties, theParty of Democratic Action (SDA),Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) andCroatian Democratic Union (HDZ), respectively, each defended the most number of positions.

A total of 3,283,194 citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina were registered to vote^[7][8] – almost on par with the total population of the country, 3,531,159 at the 2013 census^[9] – pointing to issues of outdated data in the voters' registry.

Out of 425 mayoral candidates, 29 were women.^[10] Only 4 women were elected mayors, down from 7.

Municipal elections inBosnia and Herzegovina comprise the election of a mayor and municipal assembly across the 145 municipalities of theFederation of Bosnia and Herzegovina andRepublika Srpska. They are governed by the Law on Elections.^[11]

Mayors are elected by afirst-past-the-post system, with the candidate receiving the plurality of votes winning. For this reason, multi-party coalitions are more common at the mayoral level, with a united political or ethnic slate presented in situations where several candidates may divide the electorate. Assembly elections useopen listproportional representation, with the number of assembly members varying by population.^[12]

Sarajevo andIstočno Sarajevo are further subdivided into four and six municipalities which also elect assemblies. Themayor of Sarajevo is elected indirectly,^[13][14] while the mayor of Istočno Sarajevo has been elected directly since these elections.^[15][16] TheBrčko District is an independent self-administrative unit, electing an assembly which in turn selects a mayor.^[17]

Mostar holds elections using themixed-member proportional representation system where 22 seats are elected in six different city areas and 13 on the city list.^[18] Themayor is elected by the city assembly.^[18] These were the first elections in Mostar after the political agreement in 2020 and the first to be held in the same time as the rest of the country since the2008 elections.^[19][20]

Electoral issues dominated the Bosnian public sphere across September and October, although the electoral campaign officially started only on 16 October. Political parties held large rallies, despite growingCOVID-19 cases (over 50,000 cases and 1,234 deaths by 31 October) and in violation of health and safety regulations.^[21]

According toTransparency International in Bosnia and Herzegovina (TI BIH), political parties spent almost one millionBAM on video production and advertising in TV and print media in the first two weeks of campaign. Almost the entire amount was spent by the main six parties, with the largest share by Banja Luka-basedSNSD (351,357) andPDP (325,852 km).^[22] Transparency International also recorded multiple examples of abuse of administrative resources by parties in power for electoral purposes.^[23]

InVelika Kladuša, outgoing mayor and convicted war criminalFikret Abdić, under arrest since June for abuse of office,^[24] was released to allow him to carry out electoral campaign.^[25]

The internationalHigh Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina,Valentin Inzko, noted that the election campaign was "characterized by divisive, negative rhetoric that deepens existing divisions and makes reconciliation in Bosnia and Herzegovina increasingly difficult."^[26]

The Central Electoral Commission (CIK) fined several parties for illicit activities before the formal start of the electoral campaign. On 7 October, the CIK banned from elections theUnited Srpska and fined it BAM 10,000 for diffusion of a video on social media deemed as spreading ethnic hatred.^[27][28]On 15 October, theCourt of Bosnia and Herzegovina annulled such decision, as it deemed that the legal provisions referred to by the CIK (Election Law) did not apply to the period ahead the formal start of the electoral campaign. The video continued to be shared by the party on social media in the following weeks.^[29][30][31]

The number of voters registers from abroad soared to 101,771, alarming judicial institutions to the risk of fraud.^[32] The CIK received over 3,500 reports of suspected fraud,^[33] particularly in relation toSrebrenica andBrčko. To facilitate the identification of such cases, on 8 October the CIK published on its website the liste of registered mail-in voters, including names and addresses, allowing all citizens to identify and report suspected irregularities. On 14 October the BiH Agency for the Protection of Personal Data requested the removal of the list of registered mail-in voters from the CIK website, citing privacy concerns.^[34]

The CIK rejected over 27,000 received applications for voting from abroad^[33] and reported suspect cases of fraud to the State-level BiH Prosecutor's Office, which however on 12 October indicated that it rejected jurisdiction on them and advised the CIK to address local judicial institutions.^[35]

The local elections were observed remotely by theCouncil of Europe.^[36]

Turnout reached 50.40%. Governing parties in each communities (Bosniak SDA and Bosnian Serb SNSD) had a lacklustre showing, and opposition candidates won inSarajevo as well as, unexpectedly, inBanja Luka andBijeljina. Party leaders (Bakir Izetbegović andMilorad Dodik respectively) acknowledged the loss.

In the Bosnian capital Sarajevo, in its municipality ofCentar, the candidate of the opposition coalition Srđan Mandić (Our Party) obtained almost two thirds of the votes. Opposition candidates won 4 municipalities out of 9. Experienced politician, Social DemocratBogić Bogićević was poised to be elected the nextmayor of the city of Sarajevo in the coming weeks by theCity Council.^[37] In parallel, the alliance of the four opposition parties, colloquially called theFour, also initiated the reshuffle process of the government of theSarajevo Canton, which they controlled with good results for the first time in 2019, but which returned in March 2020 to the hands of the SDA.^{[38][39][40][41]}

InZenica the outgoing mayor, the independentFuad Kasumović, kept the town hall; the SDA candidate, Deputy Minister of Justice Nezir Pivić got only second. Also inTuzla, the Social DemocratJasmin Imamović – the longest-serving mayor in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in power since 2001 – maintained control of the cantonal capital, resulting in the lead in all polling stations in town.InVelika Kladuša, war criminalFikret Abdić, was re-elected, even if only with a very narrow margin on challenger Jasmin Hušić. InMostar, voting took place on 20 December, for the first time since 2008.^[38]

In theRepublika Srpska entity, 27-year-old opposition candidateDraško Stanivuković (PDP) won the majority of votes for the post of City mayor ofBanja Luka over the outgoingIgor Radojičić (SNSD), a loyalist of Dodik. Stanivuković created a public profile lambasting nepotism and corruption of the ruling party, as well as showing himself closer to the demands of the "Justice for David" movement. Dodik's party had ruled the Bosnian Serb capital since 1998.^[38]

The SNSD, with Dalibor Pavlović, instead gained the municipality ofPrijedor, a fiefdom of his allied DNS party; that ofDoboj, where the previous mayor aligned himself with the SNSD in 2018; and that ofTrebinje, where Dodik had promised the construction of an airport – financed by Serbia. InSrebrenica, waiting for the postal votes, the outgoing mayor, SerbMladen Grujičić, a denier of thegenocide, was ahead of just 600 votes; Bosniak parties, which counted on at least 1600 postal votes, declared victory for their candidate Alija Tabaković. Ultimately, Grujičić was re-elected. Finally, inBijeljina the outgoing mayorMićo Mićić, in power since 2004, had aligned himself with Dodik, being expelled from the SDS party; he unexpectedly lost his seat to opposition candidate Ljubiša Petrović (SDS/PDP). However, Dodik's coalition obtained a majority in the city council.^[38]

Denotes municipality within city
Denotes municipality changing hands

There are 31 seats in the Assembly of theBrčko District. The seats were divided as follows:^[42]

• 2020 Mostar municipal elections
• 2020 Ilidža local elections

• Media related toMunicipal elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2020 at Wikimedia Commons

• Elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina
• 2020 elections in Europe
• 2020 in Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Municipal elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina
• November 2020 in Europe

• CS1 Bosnian-language sources (bs)
• CS1 Serbo-Croatian-language sources (sh)
• Articles with short description
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