Under the Magnifying Glass: Election Campaign Marked by Hate Speech, Voter Manipulation, Vote Buying...

The Pod lupom Coalition issued a press release stating that the current course of the election campaign shows that a large number of political entities are focused on manipulating the electoral will of voters, Patria reports.

This is manifested through pressure on voters, buying and distributing various gifts to voters such as baklava, chocolates, flour, etc., on which the name and surname of the candidate/political entity are highlighted (Doboj, Sarajevo, Tuzla), a multiple increase in applications for voting by mail and mobile teams (Odžak, Vukosavlje, Tomislavgrad), and mass registration and de-registration of voters in certain areas (in municipalities Gornji Vakuf-Uskoplje, Gračanica, Gradačac, Han Pijesak, Istočni Drvar, Kotor Varoš, Lukavac, Novo Goražde, Srebrenik, Tomislavgrad, Trnovo FBiH and Trnovo RS).

Particularly concerning is the large number of advertisements in which voters offer their votes for sale, which shows that the practice of vote buying is unfortunately widespread in BiH.

During the observation of 208 pre-election rallies, the Coalition also noticed and documented 10 cases of hate speech and/or unnecessary escalation of tensions (e.g., SDS pre-election rallies in Banja Luka, Gradiška and Istočna Ilidža, SNSD in Šekovići and Teslić, and Party for BiH rallies in Prijedor, BPS Sefer Halilović in Tuzla, United Srpska in Nova Varoš, NDP in Banja Luka, and SDA in Vitez), 34 cases of abuse of public resources, most often manifested in the use of official vehicles and personnel for campaign purposes, and 16 cases of other prohibited activities (e.g., posting billboards in prohibited areas).

The election administration generally carries out adequate preparations for holding elections. The Coalition has a truly good working relationship with most local election commissions, while it has negative experience working with the Municipal Election Commission Centar Sarajevo, which refuses to implement the decision of the Central Election Commission of BiH on accrediting a long-term observer of the Coalition.

Doubts about the accuracy of the voter list were recorded in a total of 20 municipalities, namely in the municipalities of Bosanska Krupa, Brod, Busovača, Domaljevac-Šamac, Donji Vakuf, Istočni Drvar, Jablanica, Jezero, Konjic, Ljubuški, Neum, Novi Travnik, Odžak, Stolac, Šipovo, Travnik, Vareš, Vitez, Vukosavlje and Zenica, and mainly relate to the number of deceased persons on the voter list.

In as many as 45 local election commissions, changes occurred in the membership of polling station committees since the day of their appointment due to the withdrawal of appointed members/deputies, which further indicates suspicions of trading positions in polling station committees, which were recorded in 14 municipalities.

Although the Coalition has submitted information on all recorded irregularities to the Central Election Commission, unfortunately, we must note that adequate sanctions from the CEC have been absent, and the Coalition will forward the same information to prosecutors at all levels.

- The Coalition appeals to the election administration and competent institutions to sanction the violators, as some irregularities in the electoral process have been repeating for years precisely because of the absence of adequate sanctions - emphasized the Coalition's Project Director Dario Jovanović.  

The Coalition also expresses concern about the increasing number of attempts by party activists to infiltrate the observers of the "Pod lupom" Coalition with the aim of compromising civic election monitoring. The Coalition will do everything to remove individuals known to be party-biased from the non-partisan, civic election observation campaign, and calls on political entities to refrain from such actions.

The Coalition will present all observation findings in the Second Preliminary Report, which will be published on September 29.