The Coalition for Free and Fair Elections “Pod lupom” today held a press conference informing the public on the results of a public opinion poll on the quality of life of citizens in BiH and citizens’ trust in the work of the authorities in BiH.
The survey showed that citizens consider that the key problems in BiH are crime and corruption (22,1%), the poor political situation (18,6%) and unemployment (16,6%). On the other hand, the three most important aspects for the daily life of citizens in BiH are a better economic situation (32,5%), health (24,9%) and peace and security (22,5%). This means that citizens feel that corruption and political instability directly threaten their most important priorities.
Citizens’ trust in institutions has been deeply eroded by pervasive corruption and a poor political situation. The largest number of citizens do not trust anyone in BiH society (26.1%), and the family remains the only stable support in the lives of citizens and the only one that enjoys a higher degree of their trust (24.7%). Other actors have a lower level of trust, with state institutions (7.4%) and the police (4.2%) having a slightly higher level of trust than all other actors, but still low, indicating that there is a gap between citizens and authorities.
The majority of citizens believe that the authorities work only for their own interests (25.9%) or do nothing (22.1%). It’s actually a clear indicator that the government is not working on the most important things for the daily lives of citizens. By assessing the work of all institutions in BiH, at the state, entity, cantonal and local level, citizens gave a barely passing score two for the work of institutions. The highest score, three, was given by citizens to mayors and (city) mayors and municipal councils of their local communities, clearly indicating that the local level of government is the one that enjoys the greatest trust of citizens.
In view of the above, it is not surprising that almost half of the citizens (44.3%) seriously considered leaving BiH. There is a significant difference between younger and older citizens, with younger citizens seriously considering leaving the country in 58.1% of cases, while older citizens consider this opportunity only in 16.9% of cases. The high percentage of young people considering leaving the country indicates a great deal of frustration and loss of hope in local conditions. This data indicates a continuation of an already present trend of ‘brain drain’ which further weakens the economic and social structure of the country.
The last local elections showed that, despite the general discontent and deep distrust towards the authorities and political structures, the citizens of BiH still vote for the same political parties. The reasons for such actions can be varied and range from high levels of corruption and entrapment of society in the form of providing of “meal ticket” for loyal party cadres against professional individuals, traditional political loyalties linked to ethnic identity, fear of change by which political leadership scares voters using the rhetoric of fear and community vulnerability, through pervasive intimidation and pressure on voters, to low levels of political literacy.
Although there is a general pessimism among citizens regarding the path BiH is taking, where the majority of citizens (59,1%) believe that BiH is moving in the wrong direction, there are positive indicators regarding support for integration into the European Union and NATO. Seven out of ten citizens, or 70.4% of them, believe that BiH should become a member of the European Union. There are significant differences in terms of entities. Citizens from FBiH believe that BiH should become a member of the EU with 79.5%, while 55.1% of citizens from RS think that BiH should become a member of the EU. Also, six out of ten citizens of BiH, or more precisely 60.1% think that BiH should become a NATO member. Citizens in RS significantly less believe that BiH should become a member of NATO with 23.2% versus 81.8% of citizens in FBiH.
These data reveal citizens’ aspirations for progress and integration into wider European and international structures, which can be a key driver of political and social change. EU support for integration provides a basis for building consensus on the country’s priorities and encourages governments and political leaders to work towards achieving these objectives.
The public opinion survey was carried out as part of the ‘Civil Society for Election Integrity’ project, funded by the European Union and partly co-funded by Sweden.
