prijava
SARAJEVO, October 13 (FENA) - Before the official start of the election campaign in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 78 major party rallies were recorded, which were pre-election in nature, said today the Executive Director of Transparency International BiH (TIBiH) Ivana Korajlić.
Presenting the results of the two-month monitoring of pre-election activities in 68 local communities in BiH, she stated that TI BiH observers recorded numerous cases of violations of the Election Law and that 69 reports were sent to the Central Election Commission. These reports mostly relate to prohibited advertising outside the election campaign period, but also to other cases of misuse of public resources for election promotion.
“According to the reports of TI BiH, the CEC has already punished six political entities while the outcome of other proceedings is still pending,” said Korajlić.
She warned that public functions and public institutions are used to a great extent, not only for the promotion of political parties, but also for indirect vote buying, because, as she claims, there is a huge increase in spending public money for various types of one-time assistance.
The representative of TI BiH, Srdjan Traljić, pointed out that 16 examples of paid advertising of public companies and institutions that promote candidates in local elections were recorded, and especially in Bijeljina, Visoko, Banja Luka and Banovići, where through public campaigns paid with budget money carried out direct promotion of the current town mayors and municipal mayors who ran again in the local elections.
He explained that TI BiH observers covered 572 public events, 127 of which related to the opening of infrastructure facilities, and as many as 65 percent of events were addressed by candidates in local elections, which clearly shows their real purpose.
In 102 cases, he added, the presence of officials was not within their competence, and pre-election promises were made at 152 events.
In addition, Traljić pointed out that 74 TI BiH observers recorded another 1,431 examples where public resources were used to electorally promote parties and candidates and gain voter support.
He said that 547 cases of intensification of public works in the pre-election period were recorded, as well as 150 examples of distribution of special incentives and subsidies, which most often refer to one-time payments timed in the pre-election period.
Due to the growing number of cases of election irregularities, TI BiH presented at a press conference the mobile application Reflektor, which will now allow all citizens to anonymously report cases of vote buying, pre-election employment, advertising in prohibited places, providing public services in exchange for votes and all other forms of misuse of public funds in the election process.
TI BiH implements these activities within the project "Support to Citizens in the Fight against Corruption" in cooperation with partner organizations Centers for Civil Initiatives (CCI) and the Center for Media Development and Analysis (CRMA). Financial support for the project was provided by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
(FENA) A. B.
