The election campaign for Bosnia and Herzegovina’s 2026 General Elections has entered its second week, with political parties and candidates seeking voters’ support ahead of the October 4 election.
The campaign, which officially began on September 4, has so far been marked by political accusations, patriotic rhetoric, election-law violations and a growing number of complaints submitted to the Central Election Commission (CEC) of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The campaign will continue until October 3 at 7:00 a.m., when the election silence begins.
The CEC has already imposed several fines. Among the cases cited by the Commission are Federal Minister of Labor and Social Policy Adnan Delić (NiP), who was fined KM 3,500 over a post promoting regular ministry measures alongside a party campaign slogan, and State Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations Staša Košarac (SNSD), whose post on the social network X concerning new election technologies was deemed to contain misinformation. SNSD was fined KM 5,500 and Košarac was ordered to remove the post.
Election-monitoring organizations have recorded numerous irregularities during the opening days of the campaign. According to Transparency International Bosnia and Herzegovina, misuse of public resources represents the largest category of reported violations, followed by hate speech and the exploitation of children in political campaigning.
The use of misinformation concerning new election technologies has also emerged as a particular issue during this campaign.
DAMJAN ŽEGOVIĆ, Transparency International BiH
“Many political entities are trying to challenge, or to misinform voters that this will be impossible, that their vote will be stolen, that they will be able to know who they voted for, that electoral technologies will not work and the like, precisely in order to dissuade those undecided voters from election day, knowing that their party machinery will work and that these voters will come out and vote in their favor.”
The Coalition for Free and Fair Elections “Under Scrutiny” has pointed to the level of sanctions as one factor in the repeated violations of election rules.
SRĐAN OSTOJIĆ, Coalition “Under Scrutiny”
“Very often, the sentences that are imposed are closer to the minimum than the maximum. It is especially worrying when it happens that successive sentences are imposed on the same political entity or candidate, if it is not the case that the sentence is progressively increased to achieve some effect.”
The CEC has emphasized that it can impose monetary sanctions for violations of the Election Law and, in certain circumstances, remove candidates from candidate lists or revoke the certification of political entities.
Beyond violations, the campaign has also continued to feature a familiar pattern of political promises. Candidates and parties have presented a wide range of proposals, while questions remain about how some of the announced programs would be implemented.
Political analyst Mladen Bubonjić says voters do not always expect detailed explanations of campaign promises.
MLADEN BUBONJIĆ, political analyst
“Unfortunately, apparently the citizens themselves do not fully expect that explanation, but by inertia they go to their representatives and everything that has been said so far is all they expect from them.”
With the election scheduled for October 4, political parties and candidates have several more weeks of campaigning before the election silence takes effect on October 3 at 7:00 a.m., BHRT writes.
