First post-war elections in BiH held 29 years ago

(Patria) - Elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina are held every four years starting from November 1990, which are also considered the first free multi-party elections.

The first post-war elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina were held on September 2, 1996.

According to its Dayton mandate, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) set the voting regulations for the 1996 elections.

According to official information, the OSCE accepted the registration of 49 political parties and 33 independent candidates who wished to participate in the elections.

The OSCE announced in 1996 that 51 political parties had applied to participate in the elections, two were rejected, while one was accepted at the municipal level, although it wished to run for a higher level.

Only one independent political candidate collected enough signatures to run for the BiH House of Representatives. Vladimir Srebrov met the criterion according to which independent candidates who collect at least 5,000 signatures of support can run for the highest level.

Political parties wishing to compete for the same level needed 10,000 signatures, while for the cantonal level they needed 1,500, and for the municipal level 200 citizen signatures.

Political parties and independent candidates could run at the level of the BiH Presidency, the BiH Assembly, the RS Presidency, the RS National Assembly, the Federation Assembly, cantons, and municipalities.