The last week of the election campaign will be the most active when it comes to political parties and their candidates. BHRT checked the mood of the citizens and what their expectations are.
There are still seven days until the elections that will decide who will lead the local communities for the next four years. While the candidates are optimistic, hoping that they will win the trust of the voters, skepticism reigns among the citizens.
Young people are much less interested in elections than older generations. Working on the civil campaign “When one day is worth four years”, the Association “Ostra Nula” concluded that.
MILICA PRALICA, Association of Citizens “Oštra nula”
“Young people are disinterested. Moreover, there are fewer and fewer of them in some smaller municipalities such as Kozarska Dubica, Novi Grad, Bratunac, Srebrenica. And the few young people there are, they are mostly high school students with whom we spoke, are politically disinterested and their lives, they see their future, even their education, in the countries of the European Union.”
MLADEN BUBONJIĆ, communication specialist
“What we can see is that the percentage of abstainers is really high, so we can assume what the citizens’ mood really is, which is that they have lost confidence, that they are apathetic, that they have no will and an overly enthusiastic view of socio-political events in this country.”
The average turnout in Bosnia and Herzegovina is between 50 and 55 percent. The Coalition “Under Scrutiny” notes that it is very important for citizens to go to the polls and use their ballot in order to avoid possible abuses.
SRĐAN OSTOJIĆ, Coalition “Under Scrutiny”
“We have had cases after the closing of the polling stations where the stamp that should be on the ballot and the signature of the member of the electoral committee is misused, names or signatures are added to the extract from the Central Voter’s List, and those ballots are subsequently inserted into that pile of ballots that are valid, which will be included in the counting and finally sent to the local election commission, then to the Central one.”
A recent survey by the Coalition “Under Scrutiny” showed that seven out of ten citizens will vote in local elections. Seventy-four percent of them believe that the elections are not free and fair, and over 80 percent support the introduction of new technologies as a way of fighting election abuses, BHRT writes.
Seven out of ten citizens in BiH, more precisely 71.4 percent of them believe that the elections are not free and fair. This data reflects the deep-rooted mistrust of citizens in the electoral process, as well as their belief that electoral fraud overrides the real electoral will of citizens – it was said at the press conference held by the Coalition for Free and Fair Elections “Under Scrutiny”.
The project manager Dario Jovanović and the coordinator for public and media relations Hasan Kamenjaković spoke about the test results.
The citizens’ feeling of mistrust in the electoral process was further strengthened by the fact that almost every fourth citizen, according to the results of the survey, witnessed vote buying or some kind of electoral fraud, it was stated.
When it comes to improving the electoral process, 83.4 percent support the introduction of new technologies in elections as a way of fighting election theft.
“We remind you that previously as many as 100,000 citizens signed the “Under Scrutiny” coalition’s petition for the introduction of new technologies in the election process. This support for new technologies clearly indicates that the full implementation of new technologies would restore the lost trust of citizens in the election process,” Jovanović said on this occasion.
He pointed out that the citizens, which was unusual until now, have the most confidence in the candidates in the elections (20.3 percent), followed by the Coalition “Under Scrutiny” (19.4 percent and CEC BiH 16.7 percent), while the authorities and officials have the lowest trust (4.6 percent) of citizens in elections.
When it comes to the upcoming elections, seven out of ten citizens declared that they will vote in the local elections in 2024, with a higher percentage in the FBiH (73.7 percent) than in the RS (65.8 percent).
The project manager of the “Under Scrutiny” Coalition, Dario Jovanović, referred to the fact that pre-election campaigns can be very tasteless, even dirty, which is also the case with campaigns for the upcoming elections.
This year’s elections, as said, should cost about 40 million BAM, which is more than in previous years.
The public opinion poll was conducted as part of the “Civil Society for Election Integrity” project funded by the European Union and partly co-financed by Sweden. The commission of the public opinion survey is the “Under Scrutiny” Coalition, and the payer is the Center for Civil Initiatives (CCI) for the “Under Scrutiny” Coalition.
The survey was conducted by the Public Opinion Research Agency Prism Research & Consulting d.o.o. Sarajevo. The telephone survey method was used, and the sample included 1000 respondents. The research period was from August 1 to 31, Fena writes.
