VKBI: Stolac needs new elections without manipulation and fraud

The Council of Bosniak Intellectuals (VKBI) Regional Board of Herzegovina announced that the events surrounding the local elections in Stolac and the suspension of the elections are the latest indicators of the situation and endangerment of Bosniaks in Herzegovina, not only in the part of Republika Srpska entity that includes Herzegovina, but also in all areas of Herzegovina where Croats are the majority, writes the BiH news agency Patria.

- Stolac is a blatant example because, lest we forget, Stolac is a city where Bosniaks were the majority before the war, and where Bosniaks suffered a real exodus, killings, expulsions, and deportations to camps during the war. Stolac was a completely ethnically cleansed city during the war.

In the municipality of Stolac, the HDZ built new settlements with an exclusively Croatian population that did not live in the Stolac area before, which changed the demographic structure of the municipality.

Despite everything that happened to them, thanks to their love for their city and their ancestral homeland, a large number of Bosniaks returned to their homes and live in their city today.

How they live and what the HDZ authorities have been doing to them from the war until today, we could watch and read in the media every day.

Aware of their situation and the overall situation in Stolac, Bosniaks, thank God, managed to overcome party divisions before these local elections and form a joint list for the municipal council and mayor under the name Initiative for Stolac.

The Initiative for Stolac has invested efforts and work for over a year in preparing for these elections with one exclusive goal: to ensure an equal and better life for Bosniaks, as well as all other residents of this city, through electoral success.

They warned the competent election authorities about manipulations with voter lists, the validity of identification documents, the possibilities of electoral engineering during the voting itself, etc.

Unfortunately, those responsible for the lawful and democratic conduct of elections, although aware of the situation surrounding the elections in Stolac, did not take adequate measures either before or during the elections to prevent manipulations by HDZ followers in the municipal election commission and in the polling station committees in the field.

The Election Law is clear. The Central Election Commission: "coordinates, supervises and regulates the legality of the work of all election commissions and polling station committees," "informs the election commission or polling station committee or any other body responsible for conducting elections that they are not acting in accordance with the provisions of this Law, or that they are violating them, and orders the competent authority to take appropriate measures (Article 2.9, points 1 and 7 of the Election Law of BiH).

The Central Election Commission is still awaiting reports from the competent authorities on the events in Stolac.

Dear sirs, with monthly salaries exceeding 20 average pensions in BiH, you are the competent authority by law to prevent illegalities and violations of election rules during the election process in Stolac, which were evident from the very beginning of the elections at 7 AM on October 2nd.

The suspension of the election process in Stolac is a direct consequence of your inaction, evident violations of election rules, illegal dismissals of members of polling station committees from the Bosniak people, and other irregularities for which you are directly responsible and which cause justified dissatisfaction among Bosniak representatives.

Dear sirs, do not wait for police reports from Stolac; for the police and the Prosecutor's Office in HNK, Bosniaks are responsible for everything in advance, because, as you well know, the entire leadership structure in that same police force consists of Croats from the HDZ.

Do your job, schedule elections in Stolac, and ensure they are conducted in accordance with the law, without electoral fraud and manipulation. Ensure that polling station committees do their job lawfully and provide monitoring, if necessary international monitoring, at all polling stations.

Only in this way, and not through statements and waiting, can you restore confidence in your work and enable fair, democratic elections in multi-ethnic communities like the city of Stolac.

Through this, the VKBI Regional Board of Herzegovina also calls on the representatives of the international community in BiH, especially the OSCE, the Office of the High Representative, and the Delegation of the European Union in BiH, to contribute and ensure the holding of fair, democratic, and lawful elections in the city of Stolac.