SNSD Fined for “Krajina Evenings,” Still Unknown who is Funding the Campaign?

The Central Election Commission of BiH (CIK) fined SNSD 9,500 KM for promoting Vlado Đajić and Nikola Šobot during the event as part of “Krajina Evenings” organized in July last year, before the official start of the election campaign for the 2024 Local Elections.

Transparency International in Bosnia and Herzegovina provided CIK with an audio recording from the event where messages of support for Vlado Đajić and Nikola Šobot, who were SNSD candidates in the upcoming elections, were addressed to the attendees, urging them to vote for them.

The controversial event took place on July 9, and the host greeted the gathered crowd, who wore T-shirts with the inscription “For our doctors,” with a call to vote before the official start of the election campaign, which the Election Law does not allow, resulting in SNSD being fined 9,500 KM.

In addition to the fact that it took almost nine months to reach this decision, it raises additional questions such as who actually organized and bore the costs of this event, which, judging by the number of as many as 50 performers and a large number of visitors, are not insignificant.

“Krajina Evenings” represent a series of events in Banja Luka’s local communities, during which concerts are organized and various cultural and artistic content, food, and drinks are offered without a clear indication of who the organizer is, while SNSD candidates and officials regularly appear at these events to promote themselves.

The CIK decision only confirmed previous election monitoring findings conducted by TI BiH, according to which parties reported 2.6 million KM less in pre-election campaign expenses, with SNSD leading by reporting costs to CIK that were as much as one million convertible marks lower than estimated. The mentioned findings also showed that officials of this party were the most represented on public services during the election campaign, with RTRS standing out in particular – out of a total of 1,437 political posts, as many as 1,211 were dedicated to promoting SNSD officials.

Due to such examples, TI BiH believes that political parties finance a significant portion of their campaigns from unauthorized sources, most often through the abuse of public resources and privileged private companies connected to the public sector. This is a consequence of weak control, which allows parties to enter election cycles with pre-designed models of covert promotion and non-transparent financing, undermining legal restrictions and eroding trust in the electoral process.

Although the role of civil society is significant for independent oversight, the key role in this process is held by the competent institutions, which is why real changes will not be possible without strengthening their capacities to detect and sanction abuses, along with adopting adequate legal solutions to sanction further circumvention of regulations and protect the integrity of elections.