Sarajevo, August 7, 2024: In the last month, Transparency International in BiH has submitted 50 reports to the competent institutions due to irregularities in the pre-election period, which mostly relate to the misuse of public resources and premature campaigning. Based on TI BiH’s reports, 11 sanctions totaling 43,000 KM have been imposed on parties and candidates so far, but these mainly concern premature campaigning. On the other hand, the timing and opening of public works before elections and the distribution of one-time financial assistance to citizens remain the dominant form of behavior by public officials in the pre-election period, and the amendments to the electoral law imposed by the OHR, which were supposed to prevent the misuse of public resources, have not yielded results in practice so far.
This is also shown by TI BiH’s data that all levels of government have distributed over 29 million KM in one-time assistance to various categories of the population in the past month. On the other hand, TI BiH has published an interactive map where it has located 350 examples of pre-election works that have started or finished in the past month, with a value of 139 million KM.
However, the Central Election Commission (CEC) has so far imposed only two sanctions for the misuse of public resources, which relate to the illegal use of communication means, while no one has yet been sanctioned under the provision that prohibits indirect vote buying through one-time monetary or non-monetary assistance to citizens.
– The reason is that the CEC considers all budget payments that the authorities claim were planned because they were paid from budget items as “regular subsidies” and sees nothing controversial in this, regardless of the fact that these are not regular monthly or annual payments but one-time payments, usually of 50 or 100 KM, timed before the elections. As a result, numerous TI BiH reports of misuse of public resources have been dismissed, even though the CEC was provided with clear evidence that these were payments timed before these elections and were not paid out earlier, said Ivana Korajlić, Executive Director of TI BiH.
TI BiH has already pointed out numerous examples where one-time assistance payments to social categories in Nevesinje and East New Sarajevo, organizing a free excursion for pensioners by the Mayor of Sarajevo, and the distribution of free transportation cards to pensioners by the Mayor of Banja Luka, are not considered misuse of public resources. In cases where parties promoted themselves on social media through infrastructure projects and social benefits, sanctions were imposed against SDA, Our Party, SDP, and SNSD, but only for premature campaigning, while it is difficult to expect that anyone will be sanctioned for misuse of resources with this practice.
A decision is still pending on the complaint against the Mayor of Lukavac, who introduced one-time assistance of 100 KM to veteran categories for the first time before these elections, while Ljubuški and Tomislavgrad are introducing one-time payments of 200 KM for students. In addition, the practice of official campaigning has continued, and of the 161 events of public institutions or establishments monitored by TI BiH observers, candidates for local elections were present at over 73%, while political messages were conveyed at 16% of events, which is prohibited by law. We highlight the example of a concert organized for the day of Čelinac municipality, where SNSD candidates for the Mayor of Banja Luka and the party’s list carrier addressed the gathered citizens, and a complaint was filed with the CEC due to the political messages expressed.
There were also 18 examples of the exploitation of children for political purposes, and in one of the CEC’s decisions, TI BiH’s complaint against SNSD in Prnjavor was dismissed with the claim that the materials distributed in the premises of an association for children with special needs did not contain party markings, although these are clearly visible in the photographs.
Also, 12 examples of paid advertising by institutions promoting candidates and the use of communication means for election campaigning were recorded. In addition, TI BiH has documented 21 examples of providing special benefits to citizens, which mostly relate to free public services, medical examinations, concerts, travel, and the like. Based on TI BiH’s report, the CEC imposed a sanction against United Srpska because a councilor of this party organized a free medical examination campaign while displaying the political party’s logo. Two cases were reported to the Communications Regulatory Agency and the Press Council for publishing pre-election polls that do not contain relevant data, as well as for media conducting street polls presented as representative voter opinions about candidates, which is prohibited by law.
TI BiH has long been pointing out that the misuse of public resources gives an unfair advantage to certain candidates in elections, but authorities have for years been unresponsive to adequately sanction this phenomenon through changes in legal regulations. The latest amendments imposed by the High Representative introduced new provisions concerning the behavior of parties and officials in the pre-election period and the misuse of public resources, but due to different interpretations of the provisions themselves and the unwillingness to sanction these occurrences, the misuse of resources remains a dominant feature of the campaign.
TI BiH also calls on citizens to get involved and report cases of electoral law violations or misuse of public resources in the campaign through the Reflektor application.
