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Eastern dimension and the Balkans / Backgrounder

Elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina

18/09/2008 By Sofia Sebastián

Mike Hewitt/Getty Images

Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) has seen a year of highs and lows, with periods of intense instability and major breakthroughs such as the signing of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) in June 2008.The arrest in July of Radan Karadzic once again shines a spotlight on the fragility of inter-ethnic politics in BiH.The country is now entering a new electoral cycle, with municipal elections on 5 October 2008.

These elections will be a critical mid-term test ground for political parties ahead of state- and entity-level elections in 2010. BiH faces one of the most critical periods in its process of political reform. Numerous challenges lie ahead, including the reform of the Dayton constitutional order, the transition from the Office of the High Representative (OHR) to a strengthened EU Special Representative (EUSR) and the implementation of the SAA, which will eventually open the door to EU candidate status.

The period following the elections will show the extent to which the progress achieved in the past few months represents a new phase in BiH’s political scene, or rather a brief intermission in zero-sum nationalist outlooks.

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Keywords

Bosnia and Herzegovina Civil society Democracy Elections

Related publications

• Bosnia and Herzegovina's integration challenge
• Leaving Dayton behind: constitutional reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bio author: Sofia Sebastián

Sofia Sebastian is a PhD candidate in the Government Department at the London School of Economics (LSE), where she teaches a seminar on democracy and democratization processes. The title of her thesis is 'The Interplay of Domestic and International Actors in the Process of Political Reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina.' Prior to her PhD studies, Sofia earned an MSc in Foreign Service with a focus on foreign policy and international security at Georgetown University under the sponsorship of the Fulbright Commission. Sofia received her BA in Political Science and International Relations from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid.