The Coalition for Free and Fair Elections ”Under Magnifying Glass” (”Pod lupom”) presented the five most common forms of election irregularities that occur on election day.
The Bulgarian train is the name for an electoral irregularity when political subjects, wanting to be sure that the voter will vote for them, obtain a blank ballot or a set of ballots for all levels to be elected. Then the voter is sent with already filled ballots, and he brings a new set of empty ballots from the polling station and then the procedure starts again.
The Bulgarian train creates an election result that does not correspond to the real one, and thus the electoral will of the citizens is violated.
Abuse of voting assistance is a situation where helpers are hired who, with the permission of the electoral committee, help a large number of people, which is illegal.
Using this manipulation, activists of political subjects often bring a large number of people to the polling station to “help” them vote. For example, if the granddaughter helps both the grandfather and grandmother, this represents assistance in voting, however, if the same person helps more than five voters, or the voter claims to be illiterate, and has a signature on the identification document, this represents potential manipulations.
Family voting is not allowed by law, however it happens in some polling places, the “head of the house” goes into the booth together with the family members often voting for them or directly suggesting who they should vote for.
This represents a form of traditional heritage not only in BiH, however, if the frequency is high, it can leave a strong impact on the electoral process.
Electoral theft represents an illegal change in the electoral will of citizens and includes: Voting where members of the electoral committee during the counting of votes transcribe votes or provide false information about the number of votes during its recording.
This also includes voting in the name of those who have died or who did not turn out for the elections, where the members of the polling committee agree after the closing of the polling station to distribute a part of the voters who did not turn out for the elections.
The third way is the cancellation of ballots, where valid votes for a political opponent are canceled during the counting of ballots by adding votes for other political subjects or simply by “scratching on the ballot”.
Vote buying most often represents an electoral irregularity in which political entities distribute material benefits to individual citizens in exchange for support on the ballot.
There are various ways of buying voters’ votes such as: employment, giving gifts and exchanging votes for money, Klix.ba writes.
E.Dz.
