The voting irregularities (one person is issued more than one ballot, one person votes multiple times or one person votes on behalf of other person that is not present at the polling station) were recorded at 12 polling stations. Photographing the ballots was recorded at polls in Novi Grad, Novo Sarajevo, Brčko District, Ilidža and Sanski Most.
Bulgarian train i.e., arrival of voters at polls with filled out ballots and their leaving with blank ballots was recorded at two polling stations – in Stari Grad Sarajevo and Brčko District. Both situations were resolved in a timely manner.
Inducement of voters to vote for a particular political candidate was recorded at 19 polling stations, while voter intimidations or pressure on voters were recorded at 4 polling stations – in Tuzla, Zavidovići, Visoko and Sanski Most.
One especially radical example of vote-buying on Election day is recorded in Tešanj where SDA Tešanj distributes fuel vouchers (10 liters of diesel fuel) at the gas stations Hifa d.o.o. Krndija.
Voting without valid identification documents was recorded at 3% of the polling stations.
Sending voters away from the polling stations because they are not on the excerpt from the final Central Voters’ Register was recorded at as many as 50% of the polling stations.
Pod Lupom’s observers recorded family voting where up to ten cases of this type of irregularity were recorded at 66% of the polls. More than ten cases of family voting were recorded at six polling stations – in Maglaj, Srebrenik, Brčko District, Ilijaš, Gradačac and Živinice.
The case of long presence of unauthorized persons was recorded at two polling stations. In 3% of the cases, the voting procedures were not applied and the recommended measures for preventing the spread of the Covid-19 virus were not followed.
Pod Lupom’s observers were allowed unimpeded access to observe the election process at 99% of the polling stations.
The Coalition received several dozens of reports from citizens who have not been able to exercise their right to vote because they are tested positive for Covid-19 or are in isolation, reports from citizens that learned that they were registered to vote by mail, reports on promotional material in the vicinity of a polling station, reports of violations of election silence, reports of vote-buying or pressure on voters.
The Pod Lupom Coalition for the first time monitors voter turnout. The recorded turnout in the 2020 Local election by 14:00 hrs is 35.2% (with a marginal statistical error of +/- 0,83% on .95 percent confidence interval).
BiH citizens can report all observed irregularities by calling the Coalition’s toll free number 080 05 05 05 or via the following link https://bih2020.electionsobserver.org/neregularnosti/ .
Our next press conference is scheduled to take place at 23:00 hrs when Pod Lupom will bring you the information about the voting process and the closing of the polls.
