In Bosnia and Herzegovina, at 7:00 a.m., polling stations were opened where the citizens of that country have the opportunity to elect new local authorities in cities and municipalities and in the Brčko district.
In the eighth consecutive local elections since the signing of the Dayton Agreement, slightly more than 3.4 million registered voters should elect 3,200 city and municipal councilors and 143 mayors or heads of municipalities, for which the competition There are more than 29,000 candidates on various electoral lists.
All of them, however, will not be elected by the voting that will be conducted during the day, because the elections have been completely postponed in Jablanica, Konjic, Kiseljak and Kreševo, which were the hardest hit by the torrential floods earlier this week, while in Fojnica, elections were postponed in three polling stations.
The BiH Central Election Commission (CEC) will subsequently decide when the voting will be held there, and the election law provides for a deadline ranging from seven to 30 days.
110 political parties, 58 coalitions and more than a hundred independent candidates are participating in these local elections.
In some of the polling stations this year, the use of new technological solutions will be tested, which should reduce abuses during voting and determining election results. Also, at 165 out of about five thousand polling stations, the identity of the voter will be checked electronically and the completed ballots will be counted by scanning.
The regularity of the election will be monitored by more than 400 observers from abroad.
The polling stations remain open until 19:00 and the first preliminary results are expected in the late evening hours.