SDA "crushed" 375,000 KM in 15 days, Bakir still leads in self-promotion

Transparency International Bosnia and Herzegovina monitored and analyzed the second week of the election campaign for 10 selected political parties, considering advertising in electronic and print media. The monitoring results showed that in the first two weeks of the campaign, ten political parties spent more than 780,000 KM solely on renting space in electronic and print media (10 TV stations and 9 print publications), TI BiH announced, reports the BH News Agency Patria. 

The Party of Democratic Action (SDA) and the Alliance for Change are still leading in terms of costs. SDA has spent around 285,000 KM on advertising so far, which, together with the estimated cost of ad preparation of around 90,000 KM, totals 375,000 KM for the first two weeks. The Alliance for Change, on the other hand, has spent around 160,000 KM on advertising, which, together with the estimated cost of ad preparation from the previous week of 135,000 KM, amounts to 295,000 KM. It is also interesting that in the first week, SDA had more than 50% of the total number of ads, i.e., more than all parties combined, while in the second week, SDA's share of the total number of ads was 44%.

SNSD, when combining the advertising of this party and the coalition with DNS, spent around 150,000 KM, and together with the estimated cost of ad preparation, around 257,000 KM. When it comes to candidates, Bakir Izetbegović and Ognjen Tadić advertised the most.

It is also interesting that some parties, such as the Democratic Front and the People's Party Work for Betterment, have not advertised at all in the media covered by the monitoring so far, and that, for example, SBB had a very small number of ads. This can be partly explained by the recent arrests of officials of the People's Party Work for Betterment on the one hand, and in the case of SBB, by the fact that the leader of this party owns media houses where he promotes himself, making ad rental unnecessary.

The practice of only the ruling coalition advertising on the public radio-television service RTRS in Republika Srpska, and only opposition parties on BN TV, is still present.

Considering the parties' previous practice of advertising the most in the last two weeks of the campaign, it is expected that the amounts will be many times higher by the end of the campaign. On the other hand, TI BiH emphasizes again that the mentioned advertising costs do not include the costs of outdoor advertising (billboards, posters, etc.) or pre-election rallies.

TI BiH takes this opportunity to once again urge political parties to conduct a more transparent election campaign, and especially public officials who are candidates in the upcoming elections, to refrain from using their official positions to promote themselves and the political party to which they belong.