The preliminary assessment of the election day of the Coalition “Pod lupom” for the Early Elections for the President of the Republika Srpska is that the election day was largely conducted in accordance with the legal rules and prescribed procedures. However, the Coalition emphasized that the findings of the election day observation indicate that there are still situations in which the legal framework and procedural norms were not fully respected.
As they stated, the number of cases of irregularities could, in isolated situations, affect the election results at the level of individual polling stations.
“These findings may be significant, taking into account the close electoral race between the two candidates for the position of President of the Republika Srpska and that the Coalition “Pod lupom” cannot confirm the winner of the electoral race with certainty,” they emphasized.
The Coalition “Pod lupom” processed the results of the vote for the President of the Republika Srpska from the Order of the Serb People on a statistically representative sample of polling stations (the so-called PVT). This method allows for independent reporting on election results and validation of voting results, which is particularly important in the context of public trust in the electoral process.
The election results according to the Coalition “Under the Spotlight” are as follows:
1. DRAGAN ĐOKANOVIĆ (Alliance for New Politics): 0.5 percent (with a margin of error of +/- 0.08 percent)
2. BRANKO BLANUŠA (SDS – Serbian Democratic Party): 48.9 percent (with a margin of error of +/- 1.5 percent)
3. IGOR GAŠEVIĆ (Independent candidate): 0.3 percent (with a margin of error of +/- 0.05 percent)
4. SINIŠA KARAN (Alliance of Independent Social Democrats – SNSD – Milorad Dodik): 49.6 percent (with a margin of error of +/- 1.50 percent)
5. SLAVKO DRAGIČEVIĆ (Independent candidate): 0.3 percent (with a margin of error of +/- 0.04 percent)
6. NIKOLA LAZAREVIĆ (Ecological Party of Republika Srpska): 0.4 percent (with a margin of error of +/- 0.07 percent)
The election results collected by the observers of the Coalition “Pod lupom” are in line with the results announced by the CEC BiH. The difference between the two leading candidates in the elections is 0.7 percent and is within the margin of statistical error, which for the leading candidates is ±1.5 percent.
“Therefore, the Coalition ‘Pod lupom’, in accordance with the methodology it applies, cannot confirm the winner of the election race with certainty,” they said.
The Coalition stated that the turnout in yesterday’s elections was historically low.
“The recorded turnout in the Early Elections is 35.8 percent (with a margin of statistical error of +/- 1.3% at an interval of 0.95 percent accuracy). For comparison, the turnout in the previous General Elections in 2022 in Republika Srpska was 53 percent. This indicates that the turnout in these elections was reduced by almost a third, i.e. that almost 200,000 fewer citizens voted. This is the lowest recorded turnout for higher levels of government in elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The only lower turnout was recorded in some municipalities and cities in local elections,” they pointed out.
The preliminary assessment of election day, they added, confirms that reliable voting results and an election day free from proven electoral theft and fraud are only possible with the full implementation of new technologies in elections, namely electronic voter identification and ballot scanners.
“Therefore, the ‘Under the Spotlight’ Coalition calls on all competent institutions to actively dedicate themselves to introducing new technologies in elections in BiH in the coming period,” they said.
