Šefik Džaferović

In 1996, Džaferović was elected to the council of Zenica-Doboj Canton. In the same year, he became a delegate in the House of Peoples of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Four years later, he entered the House of Peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the election of 2002, he became a member of the House of Representatives of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the 2014 election, Džaferović was re-elected for a third time to the House of Representatives of Bosnia and Herzegovina with 30,000 votes.

Džaferović at the EPP Zagreb Congress in Croatia in November 2019.

At the 2018 general election, Džaferović was elected to the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina as the Bosniak Member with over 36% of the votes, succeeding his Party of Democratic Action (SDA) colleague Bakir Izetbegović.[1] In the first month of his presidency, he had problems with Serb member Milorad Dodik, Chairman of the Presidency at the time, with Dodik stating he would not attend the first Presidency session under the new leadership until the flag of Republika Srpska, the entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, was put in his office.[2] Dodik eventually relented, agreeing to hold the session with only the flag of Bosnia and Herzegovina.[3] On 20 March 2020, Džaferović became the new Presidency Chairman for the following eight months, succeeding Croat member Željko Komšić.[4] After the eight months passed, on 20 November 2020, he was succeeded by Dodik as chairman.[5]

In December 2020, right before a state visit of Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, Džaferović refused to attend the visit because of Lavrov's disrespect to Bosnia and Herzegovina and decision to firstly visit only Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik and later on the presidency consisting of Željko Komšić, Dodik and Džaferović.[6] Shortly before Džaferović, Komšić also refused to attend Lavrov's visit because of the same reasons as Džaferović.[7]