“HDZ BiH will continue to do everything to ensure the protection of constitutionally guaranteed rights and the legitimate political representation of the Croatian people,” was published on the official website of the Municipality of Kupres. The CEC, however, did not recognize this as an election campaign, nor did it establish any misuse of public funds and resources.
The Mayor of the Municipality of Kupres, Danko Jurič, went on a “working visit” to Zagreb at the end of May, and the Municipality of Kupres specifically highlighted his meeting with the Secretary-General of HDZ Croatia, Krunoslav Katičić, on its official website.
On that occasion, Jurič was also presented as the President of the Municipal Board of HDZ BiH Kupres, the other party officials who attended the meeting were listed, and citizens were informed via the municipal website about the “strong support of HDZ of the Republic of Croatia for the Croatian people in Bosnia and Herzegovina.”
A few weeks later, the same website published the visit of HDZ BiH President Dragan Čović and party Vice-President Darijana Filipović. Jurič was again presented as the President of the local HDZ, and a message was also published stating that “HDZ BiH will continue to do everything to ensure the protection of constitutionally guaranteed rights and the legitimate political representation of the Croatian people, along with internal dialogue that is important for a functional and European Bosnia and Herzegovina.”
The BiH Election Law explicitly prohibits the use of a leadership position in a body or institution for public promotion of a political entity to which one belongs, through public promotion of that body or institution, as well as the use of public institution communication resources for electoral campaigning.
Transparency International in BiH therefore reported this case to the Central Election Commission, stating that the official website of the Municipality of Kupres was used to promote HDZ BiH and Jurič’s party engagement.
However, the CEC concluded that there were no grounds for initiating proceedings.
In the reasoning of its decision, the CEC practically confirms most of the facts pointed out by TI BiH—from the fact that Jurič was presented both as mayor and as president of the local HDZ, to the fact that the meeting of Čović and Filipović with members of the local party committee was published on the municipal website.
However, in the same explanation, the CEC states that the statement that “HDZ BiH will continue to do everything to protect the rights and legitimate political representation of the Croatian people” is not contained in the post on the official website of the Municipality of Kupres, nor was it conveyed to the public through that channel.
That statement, however, is found precisely in the disputed publication by the Municipality of Kupres from June 26, and TI BiH quoted it verbatim in the initiative submitted to the CEC, together with a link to the publication.
In the end, the CEC assessed that there were not enough elements of an electoral campaign. The decisive factor was that there was no direct call to voters to support HDZ BiH or its candidates, nor other elements that, in the Commission’s assessment, would indicate solicitation of voter support.
For this reason, according to the CEC’s conclusion, the posts “cannot be characterized as an election campaign,” and therefore no misuse of public funds and resources was established.
Such reasoning once again raises the question of how explicit content must be for the CEC to establish misuse of public resources. The law, moreover, does not tie misuse of public resources exclusively to a direct call to citizens to vote for a particular party, but explicitly prohibits the use of a leadership function for public promotion of a political entity to which the official belongs.
HDZ Uses Public Resources for Campaign
While the CEC did not recognize a campaign in the Kupres case without a direct call to voters, HDZ BiH continued to place its key political messages through appearances by its candidates even before the official start of the electoral campaign.
TI BiH thus also reported to the CEC the HDZ BiH vice president Darijana Filipović, candidate for the Croat member of the BiH Presidency, due to publications from her visit to Washington where she presented the basic goals of her pre[IB1] [SB2]-election program.
Such publications go beyond mere reporting from an official visit, because through them political positions, goals, and solutions advocated by Filipović and HDZ BiH were presented to the public—that is, party messages were placed before the start of the official electoral campaign, and within the framework of a state visit.
The CEC was therefore also notified of possible misuse of public resources, because Filipović traveled to Washington, according to available information, as a representative in the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH together with Minister of Justice Davor Bunoza, who is also a candidate in the elections. Filipović used this state visit to present messages concerning electoral law reforms and other party goals of HDZ.
While awaiting the CEC’s decision on this report, the Kupres case already shows how high the threshold is that the Commission sets for establishing prohibited campaigning and misuse of public resources.
