Local elections were recently held in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Citizens elected local government in 142 local communities - 120 municipalities and 22 cities, at a total of 5,800 polling stations. Mayors and mayors of municipalities and cities, members of municipal and city councils, as well as members of the Brčko District Assembly were elected.
A detailed analysis conducted by the Association of Young Roma "AKSIOM" found that 20 Roma women and 47 Roma were on the lists, which was not the case in the previous elections. Despite this large number of candidates, only six Roma managed to achieve good results and enter municipal councils as councilors.
What is particularly worrying is that no Roma women were elected, although there were councilors elected in previous elections.
An activist and fighter for women's rights, Jadranka Miličević, commented on the past elections as very rude and dirty, and that the Covid crisis was used as it suited to the issue of election campaigns.
- I have information that the candidates were insulted, humiliated as women within their political parties. And if we pay special attention to Roma women, I don't think it was the right way, nor did the political parties meet them to work on their promotion as candidates and as people who are important to the local community. But since I like to talk about Roma women, about women candidates, I think that they did not have equal access to the media or representation during the election campaigns - said Milicevic.
