The Coalition ‘Pod Lupom’ has today published on its website, www.podlupom.org, a database of irregularities reported during Bosnia and Herzegovina’s (BiH’s) October general elections. The total number of irregularities received was 372, out of which 96 represented violations of BiH’s Election Law. The Coalition has forwarded this information to the Central Election Commission (CEC). The Coalition calls on all relevant institutions to investigate reported irregularities and to identify the responsible individuals
On Election Day, citizens reported many irregularities and abuses. The most common ones were: unauthorized persons staying at polling stations and influencing voters (13); threatening, blackmailing and/or disturbing voters, observers and polling station committees’ members (12); and manipulation during the counting process (8). There were also 16 cases of deceased persons’ names included within the voters’ register.
To illustrate the cases mentioned above, we will name some of the irregularities reported:
- According to the instructions of one of the ruling parties, a member of one Polling Station Committee wrote signs next to the opposition party, thus invalidating 66 votes.
- The president of one Polling Station Committee allowed parties’ observers and members of the PEC to write their preferences on ballots. A representative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs refused to intervene.
- A candidate from one party openly bought votes for the price of 40 BAM. As a guarantee, he took each person’s unique identification number and sent it to the party’s observer at the corresponding polling station.
These cases will form the basis for the Coalition’s recommendations for changes to the electoral legislation in BiH. These recommendations will appear within the Coalition’s final report, which will be published on December 18, 2014.
