In the first month of monitoring the activities of political parties, Transparency International in Bosnia and Herzegovina (TI BiH) sent 22 reports to the Central Election Commission (CEC) for holding pre-election rallies and paid election campaigns.
Of the 175 events that TI observed during July, which is one of the three months of political party monitoring, candidates in the General Elections were present at 76% of them, it was stated during the presentation of the monitoring results.
At the celebration of the Day of the Municipality of Celinac, five entertainers performed and the entrance was free.
”Before the performance, four candidates of SNSD addressed the citizens,” said Srdjan Traljic, TI’s spokesman, stating that they sang and “indirectly called on the citizens to enable them to lead the Republic successfully in the coming period.”
“Everything was paid for with public funds,” said Traljic, citing the example of the “Dani Povratka” (Day of Return) – an event held in Bratunac.
At this multi-day event in Bratunac, the names of the candidates in the General Elections were on the led panels behind the speakers, and the graphic solution that was chosen is similar to the graphic solutions that the SDA used in the election campaign, it was stated in the TI monitoring results.
As Traljic said, the CEC previously punished such phenomena, adding that TI has so far submitted 22 reports due to premature campaigning, one of which also refers to the abuse of voter lists.
He stated that premature campaigning is poorly defined by the Election Law, stating that the SDA has so far held five large pre-election rallies – in Gradacac, Breza, Hadzici, Travnik, and Gornji Vakuf.
