Do CEC members have the credibility to carry out the October elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina?

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - Analysts assess that the upcoming October elections could be a turning point in the fate of Bosnia and Herzegovina. If citizens again elect politicians who advocate for the dissolution of the country or, at the very least, new ethnic divisions, all citizens in Bosnia and Herzegovina could find themselves in great trouble. The High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Valentin Inzko, recently warned about this.

He said that Bosnia and Herzegovina has many talented young people and that this might come to the fore already in the October elections, and that, as he said, citizens "choose new parties, or new people in old parties, which would be fantastic."

General elections will be held in Bosnia and Herzegovina on October 7. The country fell into a crisis after the authorities failed to adopt amendments to the Election Law of Bosnia and Herzegovina within the regular deadline, which pertains to the filling of delegates in the House of Peoples of the Federal Parliament, in accordance with the decision of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Shaken trust in the CEC

Analysts are additionally concerned that the Central Election Commission, which calls elections and monitors the legality of the electoral process in the country, is under strong influence from political parties.

Zijad Bećirović, Director of the International Institute for Middle Eastern and Balkan Studies (IFIMES) from Ljubljana, previously stated that he believes members of the Central Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina should resign, after the media reported that one of the sessions of that body would consider the method of electing delegates to the House of Peoples of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which was assessed as discriminatory.

For the elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina to be considered credible, it is first necessary to have a strong Central Election Commission, free from any political influence.

The CEC of Bosnia and Herzegovina further lost trust after it approved the participation of the radical convicted war criminal Vojislav Šešelj in the October elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina in mid-June. Four of the seven CEC members supported the participation of Šešelj's party in the elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Compromised past of members

The Central Election Commission was formed in 2001, with the adoption of the Election Law of Bosnia and Herzegovina in September of that year, after which the Provisional Election Commission (PEC) ceased its work.

The CEC consists of six members plus the President of the Commission, who is elected to that position by rotation every 21 months from among the Commission members.

The current President of the CEC is legal expert Irena Hadžiabdić. The media have written about her strong political suitability. She is mentioned as a close associate of the HDZ BiH and SNSD. She was particularly highlighted in the public after the media reported that tons of ballot papers were missing from the CEC warehouse, which Hadžiabdić justified rather clumsily. She was born in Zenica in 1960. She completed primary school and high school in Zenica, and earned a degree in law from the Faculty of Law in Belgrade. After that, she completed postgraduate studies in the United Kingdom. She defended her doctoral dissertation at the Faculty of Law in Zenica.

Novak Božičković is a cadre of the SDS from Doboj. Born on January 8, 1955. Graduated from the Faculty of Law in Sarajevo in 1981. When the Basic Court in Doboj confirmed an indictment in 2008 against Slobodan Mitrović, former director of the Center for Social Work and an SDS councilor in the Doboj Municipal Assembly, and 16 activists of this party on suspicion of bribing citizens with municipal money to vote for the SDS in elections, Božičković avoided an indictment for abuse of official position or authority and bribery in elections or voting.

"Of course, we are not satisfied that indictments were not raised against, in our opinion, the main actors, namely the mayor Obren Petrović and the president of the Municipal Election Commission Novak Božičković," said Dalibor Đurić, an SNSD councilor in the Doboj Municipal Assembly at the time.

In Doboj, a criminal complaint was filed with the District Prosecutor's Office in Doboj and the Special Prosecutor's Office of the RS against Novak Božičković, president of the Municipal Election Commission, by the SNSD. The SNSD announced that the criminal complaint was filed against Božičković and other members of the MEC because original ballot papers were distributed to voters even before the voting process itself.

„The handover of ballot papers was carried out without the presence of representatives of political parties, and the SNSD was not even provided with the handover report,“ it was announced at the time by this party. However, in 2014, the media reported that Božičković sided with the SNSD. Božičković and another CEC member, Branko Petrić, left the Central Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina and suspended their work in that institution. Journalist Slobodan Vasković claimed that this was “an open pressure on the CEC to side with the SNSD.”

Branko Petrić was previously linked by the media to the SDS, and later to the SNSD. He was born in 1959 in Derventa. After completing primary school and high school, he graduated from the Faculty of Law in Belgrade, criminal justice department. He is a former ambassador of Bosnia and Herzegovina to Slovenia. The media already wrote at that time about his abuse of official position. In August 2016, he advocated for the Central Election Commission to deliver voter lists to the authorities of the Bosnian entity Republika Srpska for the purpose of holding a referendum on Republika Srpska Day, even though the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina had declared the referendum unconstitutional.

Stjepan Mikić is a former Minister of the Interior of Posavina Canton. He was born in 1949 in Vidovice, Orašje municipality. He completed his studies in history at the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb. In his career, he also held political functions, including head of the Office of the member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina from the Croat people. High Representative Wolfgang Petritsch removed him from the list for the Parliament of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1998, due to, as stated, obstruction of the Dayton Agreement.

Vlado Rogić is remembered as a member of the Central Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina who, during a CEC session in December 2016, when discussing the decision of the Appellate Chamber of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Stolac case, where elections were suspended, requested that this case be handled exclusively by Serbs employed in the CEC secretariat!? The opposition reacted by stating that Rogić openly sided with the Dodik-Čović policy.

Among the CEC members from the Bosniak community are Suad Arnautović and Ahmet Šantić. Arnautović is a doctor of political science, born in 1958 in Sarajevo. Šantić was born in 1963 in Mostar and holds a doctorate in legal sciences. Analysts and the opposition reproach them for not clearly opposing illegal actions and political abuses in the Central Election Commission. Although they often do not support harmful policies frequently advocated by other CEC members at CEC sessions, journalists and analysts have criticized them for not wanting to speak publicly about illegalities in the Central Election Commission, or speaking very little.

Analysts assess that practice shows that elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina are won in the Central Election Commission. Therefore, it is important in the future to protect this institution from political pressure.