prijava
SARAJEVO, October 7 (FENA) - President of the Central Election Commission (CEC) of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Suad Arnautović, said today at the press conference that due to non-fulfillment of the legal obligations of polling station boards, with almost 16 percent of regular polling stations or about 1,000, the CEC could not announce the election results for some government bodies within 24 hours after the polling stations closed.
“Due to their inaction, a great burden fell on the municipal and city election commissions. By the Election Law of BiH, after receiving all the documentation and materials for the elections from the polling station boards, the municipal election commission determines the consolidated summary results for the authorities for which the elections were held and draws up a record of this, which is submitted to the Central Election Commission within 24 hours after the closing of the polling stations,” he said.
If the municipal or city commission is not able to correctly determine the results for individual polling stations and levels of government, it submits a request to the CEC to open the bags and count the votes, but the deadline for this activity to be completed by 7 p.m. on the third day after the election was not met either. There were too many polling stations for which it was not possible to determine the results, said the CEC president.
“Chief controller of election results in the Central Election Commission will prepare a report for which polling stations and levels of government it will be necessary to open the bags and correctly determine the election results in the Main Counting Center. I emphasize, the polling station boards from the places to which the orders of the CEC refer did not finish their work legally - they incorrectly packed election materials, and incorrectly filled out forms on which, for example, a candidate has more votes than his political party, which is impossible, or the total number of valid ballots is not the same as the total number of valid votes won by political entities,” said Arnautović.
He notes that for the past elections, as never before, special importance was given to the education of the members of the polling station boards, but he does not think that the cause of the said delay in the election results is the lack of training of the members of those committees, but the fact that they were appointed by their political entities.
To date, 116 voter bags have been received from outside BiH, and the counting of votes of voters who voted on unconfirmed absentee ballots (displaced persons within BiH) has begun.
Since it was not possible to hold elections on October 2 at polling station 007B051 in the Novi Grad primary constituency, the elections will be held there on Sunday, October 9th, Arnautović also said.
The President of the CEC does not welcome, he said, the timing in which the High Representative for BiH announced the changes to the Election Law of BiH and the FBiH Constitution because now we need to think about several issues, including the way to fill in the House of Peoples of the Parliament of the Federation of BiH since the High Representative imposed measures increasing the number in the caucuses of the constituent peoples.
After the imposition of new rules, Schmidt visited the CEC in the meantime, even though its members are aware of the role of that body in certain imposed solutions in the Electoral Law and the fact that the CEC will have to pass an implementing act that will determine the schedule of delegates from the cantonal assemblies in the FBiH House of Peoples.
(FENA) A. B.
