SARAJEVO (Bosnia and Herzegovina), October 19 (SeeNews) – Bosniak and Bosnian Serb nationalist parties won both the vote for state-level parliament and the elections for the tripartite interethnic presidency held in Bosnia's two entities - the Federation and the Serb Republic, according to final official data.
With 100% of the votes counted, Bosniak nationalist conservative Party of Democratic Action (SDA) won 25.61% of the vote for members of the national House of Representatives in the elections in the Federation entity, according to data published by the central electoral commission.
In the Serb Republic, the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) of Bosnian Serb nationalist leader Milorad Dodik won 39.04% of the vote for the state-level parliament.
In the Federation, SDA was followed by the Social Democratic Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina (SDP), with 14.33%, and a coalition led by the Croat Democratic Party (HDZ BiH), with 14.26% of the votes. In the Serb Republic, a coalition led by the conservative Serb Democratic Party (SDS) came second with 24.75% of the votes and the Party of Democratic Progress (PDP) was third with 12.83%.
A total of 28 parties competed for 42 seats in the House of Representatives, one of the two chambers of the state-level Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the other being the House of Peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The members of the House of Representatives are elected for a four-year term.
In the Serb Republic, the elections for members of Bosnia's collective tripartite interethnic presidency was won by Dodik with 53.66% of the vote. In the Federation, Sefik Dzaferovic of the SDA won the seat of the Bosniak member, while Zeljko Komsic, leader of the Democratic Front party, won the Croat seat, with 36.57% and 53.5%, respectively.
The Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina is a three-member panel which serves as head of state of the country. The Presidency consists of three members: one Bosniak and one Croat elected from the Federation and one Bosnian Serb elected from the Serb Republic.
According to the Dayton peace agreement that put an end to the war in Bosnia in the 1990s, the country is divided into two entities -- the Serb Republic (mostly populated by Serbs) and the Federation (majority populated by Bosniaks and Croats), covering 49% and 51% of the country's territory, respectively. The Brcko District, functioning under a decentralised system of local government, was created in 2000, out of land from both entities to reflect its multi-ethnic nature.