710 electoral irregularities were recorded before election campaign officialy started
The Coalition Pod lupom, which is implementing the mission of civic, non-partisan observation of the 2024 Local Elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina, presented the First Preliminary Report of the long-term observation of the 2024 Local Elections.
The Coalition „Pod lupom“ recorded a total of 710 election irregularities in the period July 22, through September 01, 2024. The largest number of irregularities relates to misuse of public funds and resources (223 cases) and irregularities pertaining to the establishing of Polling Station Committees (210 cases). Other irregularities refer to: premature election campaign (93 cases), failures in the work of Local Election Commissions (67 cases), irregularities in the work of the media (39 cases), pressure on voters (24 cases) and other various forms of election irregularities (54 cases ). So far, it has been identified that 30 political entities violate election rules. The largest number of irregularities refers to political entities as follows: SNSD (71), SDA (46), HDZ BiH (36), SDS (35) and SDP (29).
The Coalition „Pod lupom“ warns on the possibility that there is a large number of irregularities relating to the establishing of Polling Station Committees. As many as 181 cases were recorded with presumption that some political parties infiltrated its members to the positions of the Polling Station Committees presidents/deputies. According to the latest amendments to the BiH Election Law, Polling Station Comittees presidents/deputies are forbiden to be associated with political parties.
It is becoming obvious that political parties have no intention of giving up absolute control over Polling Station Committees regardless of clear electoral rules. The mechanism allowing them to manipulate the election results is still active, and we see, from the cases processed so far, that the lists of candidates include partisan people who were previously candidates in the elections or members of the Polling Station Committees on behalf of the political party, or partisan activists or even members of the families of those entering the electoral race. – they said in the The Coalition „Pod lupom“.
The Coalition „Pod lupom“ calls the CEC BIH to immediately remove partisan persons from the list of candidates for non-partisan Polling Station Committees presidents/deputies in all proven cases, and impose the prescribed sanctions on them for illegal activities, and to inform the competent prosecutor’s offices about the aforementioned cases for the purpose of further prosecution.
Also, the Coalition „Pod lupom“ emphasizes that the Central Voters’ List (CVL) is still not available to the public. According to the latest amendments to the BiH Election Law, the public has the right to view excerpts from CVL through the CEC BiH website, which has not been done to this date. The Coalition „Pod lupom“ considers this as a violation of the law and it is still not possible to conduct analyzes so to examine whether/to what extent CVL manipulations exist.
Based on all its findings, the The Coalition „Pod lupom“ submitted 193 reports to the CEC BiH relating to the premature election campaign, abuse of public funds and resources, and irregularities pertaining to the establishing Poling Station Committees. Based on reports of the Coalition „Pod lupom“, the CEC BiH has so far imposed 43 sanctions (55,300 KM in fines), and 29 persons have been removed from the list of candidates for non-partisan Poling Station Committees presidents/deputies.
Given the fact that the election campaign officially begins tomorrow, the Coalition „Pod lupom“ called on all political entities and candidates to strictly adhere to all regulations governing the election campaign and not to aply inflammatory rhetoric when conducting the campaign. They announced in the Coalition „Pod lupom“ that they will monitor the election campaign and will not tolerate any form of irregularities or violations of the law, and that they will actively work to eliminate them and report them to the competent institutions.
The Coalition „Pod lupom“ also reminded that citizens can register for non-partisan Election Day observers, as well as to report all election irregularities to the Coalition „Pod lupom“, via the free phone number 080 05 05 05 or via online forms available at www.podlupom.org
