The Central Election Commission (CEC) has ordered a new control recount of ballots from 51 regular polling stations regarding the early presidential elections held on November 23rd. At the center of public attention is Branko Blanusa, the SDS candidate for President of Republika Srpska (RS), who claims that this recount could, in theory, even change the order of candidates in the race.
An anomaly in Doboj: High turnout and a suspicious result
As a guest in the program, Blanusa presented concrete suspicions related to “electoral engineering,” particularly highlighting the situation in the Doboj area. He provided a drastic example involving just 14 polling stations where there are significant indications of manipulation. According to him, those locations recorded suspiciously high turnout as well as a disproportionately high percentage of votes for the SNSD candidate.
“Just at those 14 polling stations, the difference is about 2.750 votes. That is how many more votes the SNSD candidate received compared to me,” Blanusa emphasized, pointing out that determining the exact situation at these “disputed” stations could uncover the real extent of the altering of voters’ will.
Responding to accusations of “destabilizing RS”
Commenting on statements from the ruling bloc, primarily Milorad Dodik, who claims that there will be no repeat of the elections, and SNSD spokesperson Radovan Kovacevic, who called the opening of the sacks an attempt to “destabilize RS”, Blanusa was clear. He believes such rhetoric must not stand in the way of the truth.
“I believe that the citizens of RS, especially those who came out to vote in these elections, deserve for their vote to be valued and respected,” the SDS candidate said.
‘Let them check me too’
Blanusa went a step further, offering a “fair play” challenge to the ruling coalition. He said that if SNSD has doubts about the regularity of the polling stations where he won, he fully supports examining those stations as well.
“I truly support examining those polling stations, too, and determining the real situation. What I insist on is only that the election result matches what the citizens said on November 23rd,” Blanusa concluded, stressing that the goal of the process is protecting the will of the people, not a political game.
