Young people as voters

As stated in the BiH Election Law, Article 1.4: (1) Each BiH citizen who has attained eighteen (18) years of age shall have the right to vote and to be elected pursuant to this law. (2) To exercise his or her right to vote, a BiH citizen must be recorded in the Central Voters’ Register, pursuant to the Law.

There have been no recent reforms or pending proposals to lower the voting age limit below 18. 

There are not any special provisions in the law to facilitate voting rights for specific young groups such as youth offenders or those completing military/social service. 

Voter turnout in local elections in BiH in 2024 was 48.14%. According to the Institute for Youth Development KULT research on youth voter turnout in BiH local elections in 2024, young people made up 15.84% of the total electorate. Although the number of young candidates in the elections declined from 7,398 in 2020 to 5,580 in 2024, their effectiveness has increased. 

Young people as political representatives

BiH have a multi-party system, with numerous parties in which a single party often has not got a chance of gaining power alone, and parties must work with each other to form coalition governments. Every ethnic community has its own dominant political party, and all major political parties have a youth branch, although there are no specific legal provisions regulating their role.

The formal right of young people as political representatives in unicameral parliament includes candidacy age of 18. There is no quota of seats reserved for young people, or existing provisions aimed at facilitating young people standing as political candidates. 

To register as a candidate, individuals or parties must collect 3,000 voter signatures for state-level offices (e.g. Presidency, House of Representatives) for national positions and 2,000 or 500 signatures depending on municipality size for sub-national positions. For municipal councils or heads of municipalities in areas with over 10,000 registered voters, 200 signatures are required. In municipalities with 10,000 or fewer voters, 100 signatures suffice.

According to the PRONI Center for Youth Development research on Woman, Youth and Minorities Representation in BiH Representative Bodies in 2018, at all levels of government, the situation is following: out of 615 representatives in all researched representative bodies in BiH, young people hold 27 seats.

According to the Institute for Youth Development KULT research, 425 young candidates in the 2020 elections won mandates (5.75% of the total number of candidates), while in 2024 local elections that number was 340 (6.09%), of which 17 mandates were won by alumni of the UMIDp training. This is a significant indicator of the importance of support and education for young politicians. This trend points to better preparedness of young candidates, as well as growing voter support for youth.

According to data from the BiH Central Election Commission, there were more young women candidates on electoral lists (11.75%) compared to young men (9.63%), marking a difference of approximately 2. However, around 3% more mandates were won by young men than by young women.