The Democratic People’s Alliance (DNS) was fined 3 thousand KM for violating the Election Law because Nenad Nešić, the Minister of Security of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the president of that party, promised assistance and support in employment in BiH institutions to party supporters from Višegrad if they achieve good results in the elections.
This changed the initial decision of the Municipal Election Commission in Višegrad (OIK) to suspend proceedings based on TI BiH’s report, which contained a recording of Nešić promising employment in security agencies, due to, as they claimed at the time, lack of evidence. Namely, the Central Election Commission accepted TI BiH’s appeal and ordered a reconsideration, after which OIK determined that the minister, or his party, indeed violated the law.
Let us remind you, Transparency International in BiH (TI BiH) received an anonymous report with a recording from a pre-election rally in Višegrad, where Nenad Nešić addressed the gathered citizens, urging them to bring a “good result” or victory in the elections, stating that he has a kind of agreement with “colleagues from the Council of Ministers” regarding the number of people he can “push” in some of the job competitions that were being announced in various institutions and agencies at the BiH level during that period.
“I don’t know if you saw, a few days ago a competition was announced for the Border Police, shout if you have someone to apply, to compete, I will help. I will arrange with my colleagues in the Council of Ministers for Višegrad to get a certain number of people who will work in the Border Police. Also, there is a competition in SIPA, there is a competition in DKPT. We are talking about security agencies where I can jump in in some way,” Nešić stated, emphasizing that he does not differentiate between members and activists of SNSD and DNS.
TI BiH reported this case, along with the audio recording, to the Central Election Commission of BiH as a clear example of violating the Election Law through promising monetary or other material benefits, which was forwarded to OIK Višegrad for action, which initially decided that there was no evidence that the recording was made during the pre-election campaign.
TI BiH appealed this decision, which the CIK BiH accepted, after which OIK Višegrad, upon reconsideration, changed its decision and concluded that Nenad Nešić violated the provisions of the BiH Election Law, which stipulates that it is prohibited to promise monetary rewards or other material benefits with the aim of gaining voter support or threatening supporters of other political parties, coalitions, lists of independent candidates, and independent candidates. Due to indications of elements of several criminal offenses, reports were submitted to the competent prosecutor’s offices, from which the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina declared itself incompetent and forwarded the information to the District Public Prosecutor’s Office in East Sarajevo.
During the campaign for Local Elections, Transparency International in BiH submitted more than 147 reports to the competent authorities due to various electoral irregularities, but the imposed penalties were most often related to premature campaigning, while more serious cases of misuse of public resources for political promotion and gaining voters often remained unpunished.
Even when institutions decide to penalize cases like this, where the party president and state minister offers jobs in exchange for votes, they impose sanctions that are minimal, symbolic, and disproportionate to the severity and seriousness of the offense, thus failing to achieve the necessary deterrent effect to discourage future misuse of public resources, such as employment in public institutions in exchange for votes and political support.
