With his engagement, the High Representative ensured the conditions for fair and transparent elections so that citizens could be sure that their votes were valid, the OHR announced.
This is about the interest of the citizens of this country because they have the right to fully democratic election standards, they said in a statement to FENA news agency.
“The lack of criticism of the content of the amendments to the Election Law, even among those who do not agree with their adoption, only further confirms this. There is still room for the local authorities to finally act,” OHR said when asked for comment on the adoption of the Draft Election Law of the Republika Srpska at the session of the National Assembly of the RS.
The High Representative reminds that on October 18 last year, already less than a year before the elections, the ambassadors of the member countries of the Steering Committee of the Peace Implementation Council called on the authorities in their statement to ensure that the local elections in 2024 are held with improved transparency and integrity by adopting amendments to the Election Law in accordance with international standards on the transparency and integrity of election processes and positive examples of practice related to democratic elections, as clearly and repeatedly recommended by the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the OSCE a, GRECO and the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe.
They add that the ambassadors of the member countries of the Steering Committee of the Peace Implementation Council emphasized that “citizens should have confidence in electoral systems, in the consistent application of procedural protection mechanisms, as well as in the secrecy of voting.”
