Begija Smajic is the first delegate in the Republika Srpska entity’s National Assembly (RSNA) to wear a hijab.

She won the mandate by getting on the compensation mandate list.

Compensation mandates are given to parties that get the minimum required number of votes to enter an assembly, but none of their candidates wins enough votes to receive a mandate.

Smajic, who was on the Together for Bosnia list of candidates, won 1,212 votes at the October general election and with the use of compensation mandates, she managed to get a mandate in the RSNA.

This is the first time a woman wearing a hijab was elected to the Assembly of this Serb-dominates entity.

The RSNA consists of 83 delegates from 8 parties and the party with the most mandates is the nationalist Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) led by Milorad Dodik. They will form the government and the Assembly majority in this entity.

The Bosnian war lasted from 1992 to 1995, resulting in the creation of two semi-autonomous entities: The Serb-dominated Republika Srpska (RS) entity and the Bosniak-Croat dominated Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) entity.

The war ended with the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement which is also the country’s constitution.