Were the October elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) marked by manipulation and vote theft and how did this affect their results?
This question was analyzed in an interview by representatives of two opposition parties – Branislav Borenovic, president of the PDP from Republika Srpska (RS), and Damir Arnaut, member of the Presidency of Our Party from the Federation of BiH (FBiH).
Omer Karabeg: ”Mr. Arnaut, three opposition parties from the FBiH, including yours, issued a joint statement these days in which they say that the Central Election Commission (CEC) failed the exam in the recent elections and showed obvious political bias. On what basis do you claim that?
Damir Arnaut: ”BiH has been suffering for years due to the fact that it has an electoral system that favors electoral theft. That is why, in the last mandate, together with partners from the FBiH and the RS, I proposed a law that would introduce the obligation of electronic vote counting. Unfortunately, that law failed in the House of Peoples with only one vote difference. One vote separated us from a completely transparent, clean, fair election system that would prevent theft and allow us to get results immediately after the election.”
Questionable victory
Omer Karabeg: ”Mr. Borenovic, the opposition parties from RS claim that the CEC unfairly awarded the victory to Milorad Dodik in the elections for president of RS after the recount of the votes. Do you have any arguments for that claim?
Branislav Borenovic: Of course, we have arguments like never before. When the CEC ordered a re-counting of votes for the president and vice president of RS, we welcomed it as a logical and justified step towards establishing the full truth about the election results. However, after tens of thousands of irregularities were observed in the recount, and when it was determined that tens of thousands of ballots had disappeared, the CEC suddenly stopped. Instead of continuing to control the results, which the public expected, it decided not to publish the report on the control count, but to verify the mandates of the president and vice president of the RS in a very strange and controversial way. We have also come across data on incredible irregularities that were confirmed in the recounting of the votes.
Omer Karabeg: ”Mr. Arnaut, in your statement it is said that 15.000 votes were wrongly attributed to Milorad Dodik. Who determined this?”
Damir Arnaut: ”We relied on the data that came from RS and which are absolutely unquestionable. The results that were officially sent from certain polling stations do not correspond to the real situation at all. The worst thing is that the CEC confirmed it, and then a member of the CEC said that these are individual matters. The law gives the CEC the possibility to annul the elections if it has evidence that there were electoral irregularities. I don’t know why they stopped halfway.”
Does the court read appeals?
Omer Karabeg: ”Mr. Borenovic, the Appellate Council of the Court of BiH rejected your appeal in which you requested for a repeat of the elections, and you said that you will not give up the fight, how do you intend to continue the fight? Are there any legal remedies?
Branislav Borenovic: ”I repeat, we will not give up. There is no dilemma. We will not give up, first of all, for the sake of the citizens, for the sake of the people who truly sincerely and wholeheartedly supported our struggle for truth and justice. In our appeal to the Court of Appeal on 300 or so pages, there is plenty of evidence why the decision of the CEC should be annulled and elections repeated in the RS. Unfortunately, the Appellate Council of the Court of BiH rejected our appeal. I have a feeling that they didn’t even read it. And I will probably publish the names of those judges who were members of the Appellate Council so that at least the names of the people who rejected our appeal, which was prepared by a team of top lawyers from Banja Luka, Bijeljina and Istocno Sarajevo, are known. They told us that the evidence on the basis of which they wrote the complaint is really strong.”
