Head of Bosnia’s Central Election Commission (CEC BiH) Branko Petric called on all citizens to use their right to vote on Sunday’s general election and explained the voting process. This year’s general election will cost around BAM 8.5 million (around EUR 4.3 million) and the first preliminary results will be known around 9 p.m. on Sunday.

“The polls will open on Sunday, at 7 a.m. close at 7 p.m. All party activities will be banned during the election silence which will begin on Saturday,” Branko Petric said. “All voters must bring a valid identification document, an ID, a passport or a driver's license. I call on all voters registered in the electoral roll to check whether there were any changes concerning their registration.”

He said that the CEC BiH is in charge of accrediting international as well as domestic observers, while municipal and city commissions are responsible for party observers.

“We issued some 1,000 individual and group permits to international observers and more than 60,000 permits to local and party observers. The CEC BiH did everything stipulated by the Election Law of Bosnia and Herzegovina and there are no delays, irregularities or things that were left undone,” Petric concluded.

A total of 3,352,933 voters will have the opportunity to vote at this year’s general election and elect 518 mandate holders.

Bosnian citizens will cast their vote for members of the state's tripartite presidency, entity presidents and vice presidents, as well as the members of the state, entity and cantonal parliaments.

All registered voters will be able to cast their votes on more than 6,000 polling stations in the country and abroad.

This year’s general election will be observed by some 6,500 international and local observers and over 60,000 party observers who will monitor the voting process, preventing any kind of irregularity.

The Head of the CEC BiH said that the election watchdog sent some 70,000 election packages by mail to voters voting from abroad, half of which went to Serbia and Croatia. Of this number 47,000 had already returned to the Commission and 6,000 packages were never delivered.

The first preliminary results will be known by 9 p.m. on Sunday.

This year’s general election will cost around BAM 8.5 million (around EUR 4.3 million).

(EUR 1 = BAM 1.95)