prijava
SARAJEVO, October 1 (FENA) - The Coalition for Free and Fair Elections "Under the Magnifying Glass" (Pod lupom), which, together with 85 civil society organizations and informal groups, is monitoring the pre-election period in BiH, presented its findings at today's press conference in Banja Luka in the first three weeks of reporting by election observers.
One hundred long-term observers of the Coalition "Under the Magnifying Glass" recorded 238 cases of election irregularities, of which 81 cases related to the premature, prohibited campaign in every third municipality/city in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
"According to the Election Law of BiH, any form of paid political advertising is prohibited in the period from the date of calling the elections until the official start of the election campaign. This type of premature campaign is an obvious violation of the provisions of the Election Law of BiH," said the election analyst of the Coalition, Srđan Ostojić.
The next most common election irregularity refers to the misuse of public resources and abuse of office, most often through the intensification of public works and the participation of public servants in the campaigns of political entities. A total of 54 cases of such irregularity have been reported.
These are followed by 19 cases of biased media reporting, 13 cases of pressure on the media or NGOs, and 11 cases of misuse of personal data for the purpose of voting by mail and incitement of ethnic, religious or racial intolerance. Of particular concern are the 10 recorded cases of pressure on voters and buying votes, underlined the Coalition.
Other cases of recorded election irregularities relate to: the inaccuracy of the voter list in eight municipalities, five cases of illicit trade of polling places in polling committees, higher registration or deregistration of voters in two municipalities, and 24 cases of other types of irregularities.
"According to observers' reports, four local election committees did not hold any sessions during the observation period, namely Istočno Novo Sarajevo, Novi Grad, Pale (FBiH) and Stari Grad Sarajevo," said the project manager of the Coalition Dario Jovanović.
Four local election commissions are still working in an incomplete composition, they do not have all the members, these are, Goražde, Teslić, Kupres in the RS and Petrovac. Five local election commissions state that they do not have adequate working conditions, namely Bihać, Bosansko Grahovo, Istočno Novo Sarajevo, Sanski Most and Višegrad.
Although this is an obligation prescribed by the CEC BiH, one election commission does not have the adopted rules of procedure (Vitez). Ten local election commissions do not comply with the provisions of the law related to gender equality, five to the detriment of women and five to the detriment of men.
The current activities of the Coalition "Under the Magnifying Glass" are carried out under the STEP project funded by the European Union and co-financed by the US State Department.
The STEP project strengthens the role and capacity of BiH civil society and citizens to effectively support democratization processes by contributing to free and fair elections in BiH.
As part of the mission of civic, non-partisan observation of the Local Elections 2020, the Coalition "Under the Magnifying Glass" plans to engage 3,000 non-partisan, civic observers on the election day at polling stations throughout BiH, stated the Coalition.
"The goal of the Coalition 'Under the Magnifying Glass' is free and fair elections as well as the protection of the citizens' votes. We are not interested in the election results - we are interested in these results being a real reflection of the electoral will of the citizens and we have been working on that for six years," said a member of the Strategic Board of the Coalition" Under the Magnifying Glass", Ilija Trninić.
(FENA) S. R.
