At stake in this election:

• 42 seats in the National House of Representatives (Predstavnicki Dom)

Description of government structure:

• Chief of State: Chairman of the Presidency Haris SILAJDZIC *
• Head of Government: Chairman of the Council of Ministers Nikola SPIRIC
• Assembly: Bosnia and Herzegovina has a bicameral Parliamentary Assembly (Skupstina) consisting of the House of Peoples (Dom Naroda) with 15 seats and the National House of Representatives (Predstavnicki Dom) with 42 seats.

* The presidency is a collective head of state which is constituted of three members of each constituent people: one Bosniak, one Croat and one Serb. Each member is separately elected by plurality vote. This is done via separate lists, with each voter in Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina choosing either a Bosniak or Croat candidate and those in the Republika Srpska electing a Serb candidate. The three members rotate every eight months. Haris SILAJDZIC became chairman on March 6 2010; presidency member since 1 October 2006 - Bosniak); other members of the three-member presidency are: Zeljko KOMSIC (presidency member since 1 October 2006 - Croat); and Nebojsa RADMANOVIC (presidency member since 1 October 2006 - Serb)

Description of electoral system:

• The Chairman of the Presidency is elected by plurality vote to serve a 4-year term.
• Chairman of the Council of Ministers is appointed by the president with the approval of the parliament.
• In the House of Peoples (Dom Naroda) 15 members are indirectly elected by parliament to serve 4-year terms*. In the National House of Representatives (Predstavnicki Dom) 42 members are elected through an open-list proportional representation system to serve 4-year terms.**

* The seats are made up of 5 Bosniaks, 5 Croats, and 5 Serbs. Members are elected by the Bosniak/Croat Federation s House of Representatives and the Republika Srpska s National Assembly.

** 28 seats are allocated from the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) and 14 seats from the Republika Srpska (RS). In the FBiH, 21 of the 28 deputies are elected in five multi-member constituencies. The remaining seven are elected from political party compensatory lists. In the RS, 9 of the 14 deputies are elected in three multi-member constituencies, with the remaining five elected from political party compensatory lists. There is a 3 percent threshold for entering parliament. Bosnia and Herzegovina utilizes a "zipper" style gender quota, which means that members of the "minority gender" must be equally spaced out in the party list. Parties must allocate approximately one-third of their seats to the "minority gender."pure Seats are allocated using the pure Sainte-Lague method.

Main parties in the electoral race:

• Party: Democratic Action Party / Stranka Demokratske Akcije (SDA)
  • Leader: Sulejman TIHIC
  • Seats won in last National House of Representatives election: 10
• Party: Social Democratic Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina / Socijaldemokratska Partija Bosne i Hercegovine (SDP)
  • Leader: Zlatko LAGUMDZIJA
  • Seats won in last National House of Representatives election: 4
• Party: Alliance of Independent Social Democrats / Savez nezavisnih socijaldemokrata (SNSD)
  • Leader: Milorad DODIK
  • Seats won in last National House of Representatives election: 3
• Party: Party for Bosnia and Herzegovina / Stranka za Bosnu i Hercegovinu (SBiH)
  • Leader: Haris SILAJDZIC
  • Seats won in last National House of Representatives election: 6
• Party: Serbian Democratic Party / Srpska Demokratska Stranka (SDS)
  • Leader: Dragan CAVIC
  • Seats won in last National House of Representatives election: 5
• Party: Croatian Democratic Community of Bosnia-Herzegovina / Hrvatska demokratska zajednica Bosne i Hercegovine (HDZ-BH)
  • Leader: Dragan COVIC
  • Seats won in last National House of Representatives election: 5
• Party: Party of Democratic Progress / Partija demokratskog progresa (PDP)
  • Leader: Mladen IVANIC
  • Seats won in last National House of Representatives election: 2
• Party: Croatian Democratic Union 1990 / Hrvatska demokratska zajednica 1990 (HDZ 1990)
  • Leader: Bozo LJUBIC
  • Seats won in last National House of Representatives election: N/A

Population and number of registered voters:

• Population: 4,613,414 (July 2010 est.)
• Registered Voters: 3,129,599 (May 2010 )

Gender Data:

·         Female Population: 1,925,585 (2010)

·         Is Bosnia and Herzegovina a signatory to CEDAW: No

·         Has Bosnia and Herzegovina ratified CEDAW: Yes, succession (1 September 1993)

·         Gender Quota: Yes

·         Female candidates in this election: Yes

·         Number of Female Parliamentarians: 7 (House of Representatives) (following 2010 elections)

·         Human Development Index Position: 85 (2014)

·         Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) Categorization: Very Low (2014)

Disability Data:

·         Is Bosnia and Herzegovina a signatory to CRPD: Yes (29 July 2009)

·         Has Bosnia and Herzegovina ratified CRPD: Yes (12 March 2010)

·         Population with a disability: 575,288 (est.)