Christian Schmidt, the international peace envoy in Bosnia and Herzegovina, passed on Thursday the amendments to the Criminal Code in both Bosnia's entities – the Federation and Republika Srpska treating the issue of bribery in elections and duty financed by public funds.

The High Representative said the decision was guided by the need to strengthen the integrity of elections in particular by efficiency sanctioning any instances of bribery of elected officials.

The decision was passed based on the fact that BiH ranks by far the lowest in the region and third worst in Europe when it comes to the state of corruption in the country, according to the 2022 Corruption Perception Index published by Transparency International, the Office of the High Representative said.

The articles inserted in the Criminal Codes of the Federation and Republika Srpska entities among other things stipulate fines and imprisonment of up to ten years for the bribery in elections and a duty financed by public funds.

While in the Federation entity the law will enter into force one day after the date of its publication in the “Official Gazette of the Federation of BiH”, in Republika Srpska entity it will be in force on on the eighth day after the date of its publication in the “Official Gazette of Republika Srpska”.

The full decisions are available here (FBiH) and here (RS).