Members of the Central Election Commission (CEC) of B&H organized an annual conference today in Sarajevo where they presented the activities of this institution from the previous period, and commented on a number of important topics in the electoral domain.
One of the main questions that the public is interested in is the eventual merging of general and local elections in B&H.
Head of the CEC Ahmet Santic said that the CEC has not received any official decision or document of any institution regarding this issue, however, he stated following:
“As lawyers and legalists, we must state: For this kind of process it is necessary to change the entire set of laws, the Constitution of the FB&H, laws of Republika Srpska, laws of the cantons, statutes of governing units etc. If someone thinks that it can be arranged and done in this period (local elections should be held in October 2016, op. a.), we will access to legal consultation and solution.”
Reminding the public that 2015 was a non-election year, the head of the CEC talked about this year’s activities, among which the most important ones were the implementation of the Law on financing of political parties and punishment of members of committees from last year’s elections.
When it comes to funding of political parties, Santic revealed that 70 % of funds for political parties is coming from the budget. A total of 18.6 million BAM was allocated from the budgets from all levels of government, and 95 % (17.6 million BAM) was paid.
Besides funds from the budget, most of the money for political parties is coming from the civil and similar payments, from membership fees, legal entities, property of party, gifts, income from legal entities etc.
(Source: Radiosarajevo.ba)
