Bosnia holds local elections just days after deadly floods

As people voted, rescue teams from Bosnia’s neighbours and EU states joined efforts on Sunday to clear rubble and search for those still missing in the floods and landslides.

The Central Election Commission (CEC) has postponed the election in four municipalities heavily affected by the floods.

A total of 110 political parties are participating, with 386 candidates running for mayoral positions. More than 25,700 candidates will also compete for seats in local community councils.

The EU and other international bodies have funded electoral reforms after reports of fraud and other irregularities in previous elections.

The CEC has been provided with “new election integrity technology,” according to Christian Schmidt, the EU’s High Representative. His office, which holds sweeping powers in Bosnia and Herzegovina, also reformed the election laws in March.

International observers were also monitoring Sunday’s vote, including a delegation from Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, which is part of the Council of Europe.

How did Bosnia end up with a powerful EU High Representative?

Bosnia experienced a bloody war between 1992 and 1995, considered the bloodiest conflict in Europe since World War II until Russia invaded Ukraine in February.

The war resulted in 100,000 casualties, with two million people becoming either refugees or internally displaced, culminating in the genocide of Bosniaks in Srebrenica in July 1995.

Drafted to bring the war to an end in 1995, the US-sponsored Dayton Peace Accords created a complex system of jurisdictions, allowing the country’s three main ethnic groups — Eastern Orthodox Serbs, Catholic Croats, and Muslim Bosniaks — to dominate domestic politics and exert control over key decision-making processes.

The peace agreement established two main administrative units in Bosnia: the Serb-dominated entity of Republika Srpska (RS) and the Bosniak-Croat majority Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH).

It also established the Office of the High Representative, a body funded by the international community with a mandate to enforce the civilian aspects of the peace accords.