Country profile
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Europe · Southern Europe
BA · BIH
- Capital
- Sarajevo
- Population
- 3,422,000
- Area
- 51,209 km²
- Democracy index
- 51
- Regime type
- Hybrid Regime
Events
Ballots from Bosnia and Herzegovina
The latest elections, referendums, and opinion polls from Bosnia and Herzegovina. Community totals are not official results.
Archived(1)1 published ballot
Classification
Democracy profile
The score and regime label are assigned by Porto Voto using our in-house democracy index and classification framework, not ratings from governments or external agencies.
Democracy index
51/100
Regime type
Hybrid Regime
Bosnia and Herzegovina remains a deeply complex Hybrid Regime, characterized by a fragile balance between democratic aspirations and ethnically divided institutional structures. As of May 2026, the country has officially called for general elections to be held in October, a process that continues to be overshadowed by the divisive rhetoric of leaders in the Republika Srpska and persistent threats to the territorial integrity of the state. While the European Council opened accession negotiations in early 2024, actual progress remains largely stalled due to political deadlock and the failure to implement essential judicial and anti-corruption reforms. The Office of the High Representative (OHR) maintains a significant, albeit controversial, presence, frequently utilizing executive powers to bypass local legislative paralysis, which further complicates the narrative of domestic democratic ownership. Media pluralism exists but is hindered by political pressure and the fragmentation of the information space along ethnic lines. Civil society is active but faces structural hurdles in a system where patronage networks and ethnic quotas often outweigh meritocratic governance. The current index reflects this persistent stagnation, where the facade of electoral competition is maintained, but the functional distribution of power remains trapped in a cycle of ethnic vetoes and external administrative interventions.
Last evaluation:
How we classify regimes →World Factbook
Country background
A concise introduction to Bosnia and Herzegovina, together with notes on how power and law are organized, to put local ballots in context.
After four centuries of Ottoman rule over Bosnia and Herzegovina, Austria-Hungary took control in 1878 and held the region until 1918, when it was incorporated into the newly created Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. After World War II, Bosnia and Herzegovina joined the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY). Bosnia and Herzegovina declared sovereignty in October 1991 and independence from the SFRY on 3 March 1992 after a referendum boycotted by ethnic Serbs.
Bosnian Serb militias, with the support of Serbia and Croatia, then tried to take control of territories they claimed as their own. From 1992 to 1995, ethnic cleansing campaigns killed thousands and displaced more than two million people. On 21 November 1995, in Dayton, Ohio, the warring parties initialed a peace agreement, and the final agreement was signed in Paris on 14 December 1995.
The Dayton Accords retained Bosnia and Herzegovina's international boundaries and created a multiethnic and democratic government composed of two entities roughly equal in size: the predominantly Bosniak-Bosnian Croat Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the predominantly Bosnian Serb-led Republika Srpska (RS). The Dayton Accords also established the Office of the High Representative to oversee the agreement's implementation. In 1996, the NATO-led Stabilization Force (SFOR) took over responsibility for enforcing the peace.
In 2004, European Union peacekeeping troops (EUFOR) replaced SFOR. As of 2022, EUFOR deploys around 1,600 troops in Bosnia in a peacekeeping capacity. Bosnia and Herzegovina became an official candidate for EU membership in 2022.