After the publishing of the result of the population census of BiH that was conducted in 2013, the citizens noticed certain illogicalities regarding the number of citizens who live in the country and the number of persons who are registered in the Central Voting Lists, i.e. persons who have the right to vote.
According to population census results published yesterday, there are 3.531.159 permanent residents in BiH, and 3.144.296 registered voters in the Central Voting List.
When this is considered, the citizens of BiH, especially those from Republika Srpska, believe that these numbers do not match and that over three and a half million people in BiH are not a reflection of the real situation.
Even certain political parties in FBiH claim that it is necessary to revise the voting lists so that no malfeasances occur in the local elections.
Dilemmas about the numbers were explained by Maksida Pirić, expert associate for public relations of the Central Election Commission (CIK) of BiH.
“According to the rules of CIK, the right to vote belongs to all citizens with a valid confirmation of the place of residence, i.e. all people who have an ID card and are listed in the Central Voting List. Apart from them, the list also includes the BiH citizens abroad who do not have a valid ID card, but were listed in the population census from 1991 and want to register in this voting list. They also have the right to vote in the elections in BiH if they prove they hold citizenship, fill the PRP form and, as mentioned, they were listed in the population census from 1991,” said Pirić.
According to Pirić, it is evident that the voting list contains a significant number of persons who also have an ID card, but for whom it cannot be said whether they were in BiH during the census from 1991 and whether they were listed then.
“If we take into consideration the difference between the total number of residents of BiH from 1991 and results of the last census, the difference is in nearly 800.000 citizens. All those persons, if alive and living abroad, could be listed in the Central Voting List and register for voting despite not having the valid ID card. It is also known that many of BiH citizens come from diaspora, make an ID card, and are automatically included in the Central Voting List,” explained Pirić.
Judging by the comments and analysis by the BiH public so far, the “fight” about census results is being led exclusively around the ethnic affiliation of BiH citizens, while everything else is neglected.
(Source: klix.ba/photo: visoko.co.ba)
