Repeat elections in Srebrenica and Doboj will be held on Sunday, February 21, while early elections in Travnik and Ustikolina will be held in April, it was concluded at session of the Central Election Commission (CEC) of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The CEC previously determined in both constituencies Srebrenica and Doboj a large number of violations of the rules of the election process and the impossibility of exercising the right to vote of certain participants in the election process.
Elections in these two constituencies will be held again on the basis of the same candidate lists and the same excerpts from the Central Voters’ List that were used in the annulled elections. At the same session, the Instruction on the procedure of conducting re-elections was adopted, which regulates the procedure of conducting re-elections for the Mayor of Doboj and the Assembly of Doboj at 89 regular polling stations and the Mayor of Srebrenica and the Assembly of Srebrenica at 26 regular polling stations and 2 polling stations voting in absentia.
When it comes to the elections in Travnik, since the candidates have passed away, political entities will be able to submit new candidates and the process of registration and certification of political entities will be open as if they were new elections, but the mandate of the one elected will last until the end of the current term.
This means that the mandate of the mayor who will be elected in the early elections will run in parallel with all other mayors who were elected on November 15, 2020.
Representatives of the My Address: Srebrenica Initiative sent a meeting invitation to pro-Bosnian party leaders after deciding to boycott re-elections in the municipality on February 21st. Whether this boycott could affect the conduct of the elections and the results of those elections, the Central Election Commission did not want to comment.
Pro-Bosnian parties have announced a boycott of the elections, believing that the Central Election Commission is manipulating. The Central Election Commission did not want to say whether the boycott will affect the conduct of the elections and the results.
President Zeljko Bakalar told BHRT that he had already said everything he had to say about the elections in Srebrenica.
Now the question is how will the government be established in this municipality after Sunday?
The Prime Minister of the Republika Srpska, Radovan Viskovic, called on all citizens to go to the polls.
Following the decision of the My Address Srebrenica Initiative that they do not want to be part of the repeat elections in Srebrenica, there are fears that this city will be governed by a single-ethnic council.
The members of the Initiative invited the leaders of the pro-Bosnian parties to a meeting on Thursday, and the topic will be, as they stated, repeated elections and a boycott.
After the Central Election Commission of BiH (CEC BiH) made a decision on calling and holding repeat elections for the Mayor of Doboj and the Assembly of Doboj, and the Mayor of Srebrenica and the Municipal Assembly of Srebrenica, the Coalition for free and fair elections “Under the Magnifying Glass” (Pod lupom) began with the activities of the organization of non-partisan observing of the repeat elections in Doboj and Srebrenica.
The Coalition reminds that on the day of the regular, annulled Local Elections 2020 in Doboj, their accredited non-partisan observers were prevented from observing the election process, which the Central Election Commission of BiH stated as one of the reasons for annulling the elections in Doboj
“The ban on access to accredited observers is a direct violation of the BiH Election Law. The repeat elections are an opportunity for the voting process in Doboj and Srebrenica to be held in accordance with the election rules,” said the project manager of the Coalition, Dario Jovanović.
According to him, the Coalition will try to have one non-partisan observer at each polling station in Doboj and Srebrenica, “which will be a significant contribution to ensuring free and fair elections.”
The public will be informed about the entire election process through press releases, press conferences and social networks.
