This report is based upon surveys conducted in Bosnia and Herzegovina during mid-late June, 1998. In total, 3002 interviews were conducted: 1000 in the Republika Srpska by the firm Medium Index, Ltd of Belgrade; and 2002 in the Federation by Puls Public Opinion Research of Split. These contractors used a stratified probability sample design in which interviews were apportioned by region in proportion to population, while the specific location of interviewing, the household, and the respondent within the household were selected randomly. In the Republika Srpska, interviews were conducted in all regions of the entity, including 19 of 47 principal municipalities. In the Federation, interviews were conducted in 8 of 10 cantons (excluded were the detached Posavina, and remote Gorazde), and 41 of 79 principal municipalities. Interviews were conducted in three languages: Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian.
In the absence of reliable census data, the most recently available voter registration data from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) were used to weight the survey data, so that the geographic distribution of interviews represented the actual distribution of the adult population of Bosnia & Herzegovina as closely as possible. Based on this registration data, 39 percent of the national population is found in the Republika Srpska, 61 percent in the Federation. The obtained survey data were weighted to conform to these targets, and to match the population distribution within each entity according to region — by canton in the Federation and by four unofficial regions in the RS. The theoretical margin sampling error for the entire sample is ± 1.8%; for the RS survey it is ± 3.1%; for the Federation sample it is ± 2.2%.
This report was prepared by Steven Wagner, President of QEV Analytics in Washington, DC. QEV Analytics served as the technical consultant to the International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES) for the purposes of this survey project. This project was commissioned by the National Democratic Institute funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development.
The Report is Available in Adobe Acrobat Format. Click Here.