The Central Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina (CEC BiH) must begin to sanction official campaigns and misuse of public resources, and impose maximum fines for multiple violators of election rules.
The Coalition “Pod lupom”, which is implementing the mission of civic, non-partisan observation of 2024 Local elections in BiH, points out that the CEC BiH narrowly interprets the provisions of the Election Law of BiH pertaining to premature election campaigns and abuse of public funds and resources, while at the same time does not impose sanctions for violation of election rules or imposes minimal sanctions on political entities that are not of a deterrent nature. Out of 393 felony reports to the CEC BiH, sanctions were imposed in only 59 cases, i.e. only every seventh report results in a fine.
The minimum possible sanction prescribed by law for political subjects is 3,000 KM, and the average sanction imposed by the CEC BiH so far is 3,750 KM. Until now, there has not been any sanction that is approximately equal to the maximum of 30,000 KM for political entities and an additional 15,000 KM for candidates. This is particularly controversial in the case of those political subjects violating election rules again and again. Namely, two-thirds of all reports and even 80% of imposed fines refer to 10 political parties which are continuing to violate election rules.
As part of the observation mission of the Coalition “Pod lupom”, a total of 273 election irregularities were recorded in the first three weeks of reporting by Long Term Observers (LTOs). 102 cases refer to misuse of public funds and resources, 80 to premature election campaign, 36 to failures in the work of local election commissions, 21 cases to irregularities in the work of the media, 11 cases to pressure on voters and 23 cases to other election irregularities.
The highest number of irregularities refers to the following political entities: SNSD (42), SDA (24), SDP (18), SDS (17) and HDZ BiH (12).
It is worrisome that for this election cycle the official campaign has gained full momentum, while the CEC BiH does not sanction it. This is very dangerous, because this practice of the CEC BiH violates the principle of equality for all participants in the electoral process and gives priority to political subjects and candidates who run the election race from a position of power.
Based on its findings, the Coalition “Pod lupom” submitted to the CEC BiH 62 felony reports pertaining to the premature election campaign, abuse of public funds and resources, and trading of seats in Polling Station Committees. The CEC BiH imposed sanctions in 11 cases in the amount of 41,800 KM based on the felony reports submited by the Coalition “Pod lupom”.
The Coalition “Pod lupom” calls on the CEC BiH to sanction official campaigning and abusing of public funds and resources, and to impose maximum sanctions for multiple violators of election rules so that violating of election rules would not be a profitable occupation for political subjects.
The Coalition “Pod lupom” calls on all citizens to register as non-partisan Election Day observers until August 31, 2024, as well as report all election irregularities to the Coalition “Pod lupom”, either via the toll-free number 080 05 05 05 or using the online forms available at www.podlupom.org.
