Public debate in Travnik and regional conference in Livno brought together more than 70 participants majority of whom unconditionally upheld the recommendations of Coalition “Pod lupom” that were presented in the Final report on observation of the 2016 Local Elections.
Although the Coalition “Pod lupom” had in its Final report on observation of the 2016 Local Elections concluded that the elections at majority of polling stations were conducted in line with the BiH Election Law, there were several areas in which an array of incidents and irregularities was observed i.e. premature election campaign, trading of positions on polling station committees, vote buying, abuse of personal data for the purpose of by-mail voting, abuse of public resources for private purposes, and violent interruption of voting in Stolac.
The participants of these events concur that the key problem of elections in BiH is lack of political will for improvement, complete politicization of the electoral process, manipulation with the results and electoral frauds.
“Much higher involvement of all of us, and not only of decision-makers and election administration, is needed for improvement of electoral legislation”, said the Project Director of Coalition “Pod lupom” Dario Jovanović, adding that it is a good thing that irregularities are being openly discussed and that the key responsibility now rests with the decision-makers.
“We will try to exert positive pressure on them on behalf of all citizens who are involved in our activities to now really make tangible progress since it is not only the question of good will, but also a condition in the BiH integration processes”, said Jovanović.
President of the Strategic Board of the Coalition “Pod lupom” Vehid Šehić pointed out that since 1996 no elections were either complete free or fair, pointing out that non-observance of the law represents the main problem.
“We will have elections like this until accountability is imposed to the political subjects, which generate all electoral irregularities. Elections in BiH are like an emergency situation where everything is sold and bought openly without anyone being held accountable”, said Šehić, adding that many participants in the electoral process are trained to “forge the citizens’ electoral will”.
Some of the key recommendations that the Coalition “Pod lupom” will forward to the decision-makers are to have non-party persons with experience in election management as the presidents of the polling station committees, to shorten all deadlines from the day elections are announced until the official and complete announcement of final election results and to introduce the possibility for the non-party observers to file complaints in the electoral process.
Coalition “Pod lupom” also calls for improvement of the system of controlling political parties’ financial management, prevention of the exchange and potential trade of the seats on the polling station committees, introduction of the possibility to have voters scanning the ballot papers at the polling station thereby preventing electoral manipulations and having the election results published faster as well as putting in place all legislative preconditions and enabling conduct of local elections in the City of Mostar.
The participants of both events were provided with an opportunity to directly address decision-makers by sending postcards containing requests for improvement of electoral process. Media coverage was provided by TNT group, plavavoda.com and travnik-grad.info.
These events are the first in the series of 13 events that the Coalition “Pod lupom” will organize across BiH.
For all additional information please contact PR coordinator of the Coalition “Pod lupom” Jovana Kljajić via e-mail pr@podlupom.org or by phone 033 268 160 and 065 252 016.
