The Coalition for Free and Fair Elections ”Pod lupom” reports on the voting process and voter turnout in Prijedor until 2 p.m.
Voting process
The voting process irregularities observed by the Pod Lupom observers include the following: at the polling station 009B063 a voter cast several ballot papers in a voting box, while at the polling station 009B035 one person was repeatedly allowed to vote on behalf of several persons.
At almost 47% of the polling stations, the observers registered up to ten cases of family voting. Also, at 56.5% of the polling stations, there were cases of voters being turned away from a polling station because they were not on the excerpt of the Central Voter’s Register (up to ten cases of this irregularity).
At the polling station 009B062 there was the case of open inducement of voters to vote for a particular political subject. Every fifth polling station registered at least one case where one person repeatedly assisted several persons with voting in a voting booth.
Up to ten cases of voting without the prescribed voter identification were registered at seven polling stations: (009B035, 009B038, 009B042, 009B051-B, 009B063, 009B065, 009B085).
The measures to prevent the spreading of Covid-19 were not applied at 8.7% of the polling stations.
At six polling stations, written complaints or objections were filed by the observers of the election process.
A case of the violation of the election silence was registered in the center of Prijedor and it refers to the use of an interactive billboard. The Coalition has prepared a complaint to be filed with the Central Election Commission of BiH, the first instance body responsible for this case. Political subjects had the possibility to pay for their promotion until the day of the start of the election silence i.e. 24 hours before polling, and this is something that they failed to do.
Citizens’ reports
The Coalition received two reports about the violation of the election silence on social media; however, because of the emergence of accounts on social media that cannot be linked to political subjects, these irregularities are not treated by the Election Law of BiH. In the case of determining ownership of the page on social media, Pod Lupom will process these reports and forward them to the Central Election Commission of BiH.
A particularly concerning is the case reported by two citizens referring to pressures on voters to vote for one candidate coming from the phone number registered to the Republika Srpska Fund for Pension/Invalid Insurance, the office in Prijedor. The case has been reported to the Prijedor Police Department.
Voter turnout
Pod Lupom monitors the information on voter turnout. The turnout registered until 2 p.m. in the early elections in Prijedor was 21.4% (with a margin of error of +/- 3 % on the 99% confidence interval).
Citizens can report all election day irregularities to the Coalition using a toll-free number 080 05 05 05 or via Coalition’s official social media channels.
The next press conference will be held at 9 p.m. when the Coalition will provide more information about the voter turnout, voting process, closing of the polls, and the preliminary results for the City Mayor of Prijedor.
