Final Report BOSNIA-HERCEGOVINA: POLITICAL PARTY AND PARLIAMENTARY DEVELOPMENT USAID Associate Cooperative Agreement No. 168-A-00-01-00107-00 June 1, 2001 to March 31, 20041 I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY From 2001 to 2004, the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI or the Institute) conducted a program to facilitate the long-term development of democratic institutions in Bosnia-Hercegovina (BiH). This program built upon the Institute’s previous programs, which, from 1996 through 2000, focused on developing the basic skills and organizational capacities of nascent moderate political parties and civic groups and, from 2000 to early 2001, on assisting the Federation parliament in developing legislative processes and moderate parties with continued capacity-building, such as branch formation and membership development. During the period of this agreement, NDI designed and conducted a program to facilitate the long-term development and election-readiness of political parties and to assist in the development of professional and transparent legislative bodies. The program reflected the changing nature of the political environment in BiH, from politics controlled solely by nationalist political parties and interests, to more moderate, pro-Dayton, coalition-based governments. Throughout, NDI’s role changed from acting as a primary skills-building source to working in partnership with BiH institutions and political parties to assist them in strengthening the country’s development of democracy. NDI’s program had the following objectives: · Parties enhance organizational and operational capacity and democratize internal structures as part of election campaigning. · Political parties engage in comprehensive election preparation in order to develop policy platforms and campaign messages and strategy that address voter interests. 1 NDI conducted its program in BiH under this cooperative agreement from June 1, 2001 to April 30, 2003, after which time a follow-on cooperative agreement was awarded (No. 168-A-00-03-00104-00). Activities in the Brcko District, however, continued under this cooperative agreement through March 31, 2004. · Parties conduct public outreach and engage citizens in a pre-election period. · Parties increase the political participation of women and youth. · Party caucuses strengthen their ability to function effectively. · MPs strengthen their ability to represent constituents. · Committees improve their ability to increase the efficiency of the legislative process and increase public participation in the legislative process. · Parliamentary resources are increased through the establishment of an internship program. · Staff resources increase the research and operational capacities of Parliament. · The capacity of BiH institutions to function as representatives of the Bosnian people across entity and ethnic lines are strengthened. · The sustainability of democratic institutions in Bosnia-Hercegovina is enhanced. From June 2001 to October 2002, with moderate parties in power, NDI worked intensively with these parties to prepare for the October 2002 general elections, focusing on advanced campaign preparedness, constituent outreach, election platform and literature development, and enhancing the use of public opinion research in strategy and campaigns. Following the defeat of the moderate Alliance for Change coalition, which returned nationalist parties to power at the state-level and in both entities, NDI shifted its assistance in late 2002 and early 2003 to address long-term development and organizational issues that built upon the advances made by the parties in conducting election related activities. From mid-2001 to early 2003, the Institute assisted the BiH, Federation, and Republika Srpska (RS) parliaments in developing more effective and transparent legislative processes. The parliamentary program was developed in response to the needs of parties and elected officials. Having gained more support and influence through elections, moderate parties and elected officials needed to develop the skills to govern. Committee and caucus structures became more critical to MPs and parties exercising authority and introducing important economic, social, and political issues to the legislative agendas. NDI aimed to better prepare elected officials to perform their roles in parliament and develop more transparent and effective parliamentary structures to encourage debate and legislative analysis, and begin the process of professionalizing parliamentary staff and adding personnel resources through an internship program. Starting in May 2003, the Institute established a program of political party and parliamentary development for the Brcko District in advance of a planned transition from an appointed interim Assembly to an elected Assembly. In anticipation of the Office the High Representative’s Supervisor for the Brcko District announcing the holding of first-ever elections in the District sometime in 2004, NDI designed and conducted a program to build the capacities of the District’s political party branches to engage in their first-ever elections and assist the appointed members of the interim District Assembly in improving legislative processes, particularly constituent outreach. NDI’s Brcko District program had the following objectives: · The Brcko Assembly develops more effective and transparent legislative processes and improves oversight of the executive. 2 · The links between the residents of the Brcko District, the Assembly and its Councilors are strengthened. · Brcko party branches improve organizational planning and development, including membership recruitment and fundraising. · Brcko party branches develop and implement strategies for promoting issue-based political action at the local level between elections. While the long-term objectives of NDI’s program in Brcko spoke to both political party and legislative development, the focus during the period of May 2003 to March 2004 was on political parties and included basic party-building activities such as election planning and campaign implementation, message and platform development, door-to-door and phone canvassing, voter identification, media relations, and candidate selection processes. The October 2002 general elections stood squarely as the most important target driving NDI’s work with political parties in BiH. It started well before the election campaign period officially commenced, with NDI shifting its engagement from long-term institutional development in mid-2001 to election preparedness. Although NDI encountered resistance to some campaign techniques, breakthroughs happened with several parties wherein they attempted new techniques and noted positive results. For the 2002 general election campaign as a whole, including the work of all parties, this was the most sophisticated campaign yet seen in BiH: new campaign techniques were used; party propaganda and advertising focused less on particular personalities and more on policy interests; parties used voter identification databases to conduct sophisticated election day GOTV activities. Although parties were understandably preoccupied with election preparedness activities, limiting their efforts to undertake any major efforts to democratize internal structures, key party partners were able to make progress in enhancing internal communication processes, planning, and coordination that improved each party’s organization capacities. Although the parliaments elected in 2000 had managed to pass some key reforms, by and large legislative institutions at the state and entity levels were inefficiently run, with time squandered on debating agendas, disputing procedures or political ranting. There was a lack of effective committee and caucus practice, of interest in developing capacities and skills, of adopting new techniques and of increasing communication with NGOs, expert groups and citizens. However, during the period of this cooperative agreement, the Institute did successfully impart an understanding of the importance and major roles of the party caucus through seminars and consultations. Many major caucuses made concrete improvements to their structures and activities. NDI’s work with committees in the Federation, Republika Srpska (RS) and BiH parliaments was limited during this period, due to a program focus on caucuses at the Federation parliament, an interruption in programming at the RS National Assembly (RSNA), and the limited time at the end of the period to work with the BiH Parliamentary Assembly (BiHPA). The Institute’s internship program in all three parliaments was successfully established and has become the flagship activity in NDI’s parliamentary development program. 3 II. BACKGROUND The period from 1996 through 2001 marked a time of democratic consolidation and institution building in BiH, as well as transition for political actors in the country. As of early 2001, BiH was only little more than five years removed from bitter ethnic conflict and still needed assistance and support to start moving away from issues of national interest and ethnic identity in an attempt to form a more representative and integrated state with multi-ethnic parties and effective legislatures. Many challenges affected society and the attitudes of citizens as a whole. Political attitudes had yet to extend beyond the legacy of the communist system and the boundaries of a one-party state and political system. With the complicated tri-partite presidency, dual-entity structure, and international community influence,