Rules adopted on Bosnia and Herzegovina House of Peoples

SARAJEVO, 12 October 2000 - The Provisional Election Commission adopted today the rules and regulations governing the establishment of the House of Peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Federation House of Peoples and the election of the Federation President and Vice President.

The rules concerning the election of the delegates to the Federation House of Peoples by the cantonal assemblies are taken from the draft election law, as called for by the Peace Implementation Council Steering Board in Brussels. The rules bring about two sets of substantive changes:

• It ensures that all members of the cantonal assemblies are allowed to vote for all delegates from the cantons to the Federation House of Peoples. The vote is a proportional one, where the candidates on each list are labelled as being Croat, Bosniak or Other. Ethnic quotas for each canton will secure that the number of Croats in the Federation House of People will be 30, the number of Bosniaks 30 and the number of Others 20. The new rules also ensure that as many seats as possible be filled by providing for a redistribution of vacant seats between the cantons. The proposed rules strike a good balance between the ethnic and political dimension of the election by giving due consideration to the representation of all parties in the entire assembly.
• The rules provide for a new method of allocating the seats to the various cantonal assemblies which reflects the weight of the electorate of each canton. By doing so, the rules ensure that the representation of each canton in the House of People will reflect the voting strength of that Canton while also ensuring a minimum representation for each canton.
• The PEC also adopted the rules that will regulate the allocation of seats per ethnic groups. Although the outcome of this rule will be slightly revised in order to meet the need to fill as many mandates as possible, the application of this rule should lead to the breakdown as indicated in the attached table.

With regard to the election of the President and Vice President of the Federation, the rules enable the "Other" members to participate in the nomination process. The Other members of the House of Peoples had so far been disenfranchised as only the Croat and Bosniak delegates to the House of Peoples were permitted to take part in the nomination process.

For more information please call OSCE Deputy Spokesperson Sanela Tunovic-Becirovic at + 387 33/292-338 or + 387 66/134-758.