The Coalition for Free and Fair Elections “Under Scrutiny” informed the public at a press conference that it has hired 111 civil, non-partisan election day observers for the re-election of the President of the Republika Srpska from the ranks of the Serbian people, which are being held at 136 polling stations in 17 electoral units.
Access of observers to polling stations
The “Under Scrutiny” coalition pointed out that during the observation of the early elections for the president of Republika Srpska, almost all independent, non-partisan observers had unhindered and timely access to the polling stations and without any obstacles in the work of the observation mission, in terms of the ban on observation that used to happen before.
In Zvornik, the observers could not access the polling stations unhindered due to procedural problems because the polling boards required the observers, in addition to the accreditation that the observers had, to have a decision on accreditation in order to access the polling stations, which was not the case before.
“We consider it important to highlight positive practices and respect for electoral legislation by all actors in the electoral process. Unhindered access of independent observers is a basic prerequisite for credible election observation. Only in such circumstances is it possible to ensure that the observation mission is carried out in full capacity and without creating doubts about the regularity of the election process at the very opening of the polling stations,” said the “Under Scrutiny” Coalition.
Opening of polling stations
Polling stations were mostly opened on time without significant delays. Exactly at 7:00 a.m., 99% of observed polling stations were open, and from 7:01 a.m. to 7:15 a.m., 1% of polling stations were open.
Election irregularities
Irregularities that were recorded until 9:00 a.m. relate mostly to indications of party presidents and deputy presidents of election committees.
“It is necessary to point out that there is a slightly larger number of people in the electoral committees for whom there are indications that they are connected to political parties, judging by the first information that the Coalition “Under Scrutiny” receives from the field. The Coalition “Under Scrutiny” is already continuously working on collecting evidence for the aforementioned indications in order to report it to the competent authorities,” the Coalition “Under Scrutiny” stated.
The “Under Scrutiny” Coalition called on citizens to report any election irregularities they see.
