The CEC concluded that Dodik misinformed voters and violated the Election Law with his claims about electronic election rigging.
The Central Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina (CEC) fined the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) 4,000 KM at today’s session following a report by Transparency International in BiH, and determined that the party’s president, Milorad Dodik, spread false information about electoral technologies that could undermine the integrity of the electoral process.
TI BiH requested on July 8 that the CEC initiate proceedings ex officio due to Dodik’s statements broadcast on July 3 by Radio-Television of Republika Srpska, in a report titled “Dodik: Foreigners Imposed Electronic Voting, But We Will Achieve a Serious Victory.” Dodik claimed, among other things, that during the upcoming electoral process there would be attempts at “electoral engineering and rigging of results through electronic voting systems.”
TI BiH warned that these statements could be viewed in the context of Article 16.17a of the BiH Election Law, which prohibits political entities from disseminating false information through the media that could undermine the integrity of the electoral process and misinform voters. The competent CEC service, after analyzing the statements and submitted evidence, proposed that a violation of the Election Law be established and that SNSD be issued a fine of 4,000 KM, which all present CEC members voted for without discussion.
At the session, it was stated that the proceedings established that Dodik made claims that “foreigners imposed electronic voting,” that “elections are rigged through electronics,” and that there is an “international intention to influence the election results and weaken a certain political option.” It was also established that Dodik posted similar content on social media on July 3, thereby violating the article of the Election Law that prohibits the spread of false information.
It is important to emphasize that claims about rigging elections through “electronic voting” are not accurate because BiH is introducing technologies for electronic voter identification and electronic vote counting, not equipment for electronic voting, so voters will continue to vote on paper ballots. Also, Article 5.23 of the Election Law clearly stipulates that after counting votes using electoral technologies, polling boards will also perform manual vote counting, which has existed until now.
Technologies Are Being Introduced Due to Proven Electoral Fraud
Given that a systematic campaign of spreading disinformation is already being conducted in the public space, it is necessary to emphasize that electoral technologies are being introduced precisely to prevent massive electoral fraud that has been proven in recent years through numerous court verdicts and proceedings conducted by the CEC.
Namely, court verdicts for electoral theft in 2020 and 2022 established through citizen testimonies and material evidence that signatures of voters who did not turn out to vote were massively falsified, as well as those of deceased persons who were not removed from the voter registry. In this way, the election results were falsified, and everything culminated in massive fraud at the early elections in Republika Srpska last year when elections were annulled at 136 polling stations. At that time, graphological examination established that at certain locations over 50 percent of signatures of voters who did not turn out were falsified. Likewise, the recount of votes in Republika Srpska in 2022 established that several thousand votes were stolen just on the records, and the process of graphological examination was not even initiated at that time.
The introduction of electoral technologies should precisely prevent two dominant methods of manipulating voting results: first, through identity theft and adding votes of voters who did not turn out to vote, and second, through altering records and manipulating vote counting. Biometric identification should narrow the possibility of one person voting on behalf of another, while scanning ballots should reduce the space for subsequent manipulation of results or destruction of ballots.
No Proceedings Against Minić for Promoting Dodik at Public Works Opening
On the other hand, CEC the CEC refused to initiate proceedings against the Prime Minister of Republika Srpska, Savo Minić, for Dodik’s promotion at the public event marking the start of construction of an additional lane for slow vehicles on the section of the main road Podromanija – Sumbulovac. This case was also reported by TI BiH because the Election Law prohibits the promotion of political entities at public events financed by institutions or public enterprises.
The CEC determined that the mere presence of the SNSD president at a public event is not a violation, especially since the party president, according to the CEC, did not present the mentioned project as a project backed by a political entity.
However, Dodik gave a speech to those present about the project itself, promised a new kindergarten in Sokoc and the arrangement of access to the memorial area “Novi Zejtinlik,” and reminded them that the sports hall was completed. It is superfluous to even mention that this type of promotion using public resources and at institutional events is not available to presidents of other political entities and that this has become a pattern of behavior for the SNSD leader at a series of events organized by the RS government.
