PRESS RELEASE
The dirtiest campaign so far

44 political parties, one coalition, three lists of independent candidates and six independent candidates will take part at the general elections on 11 November 2000. 2,5 million citizens have the right to vote, including 234,534 voters from abroad. There are about 6,000 candidates running for 581 seats in the municipal assembly of Srebrenica, in the cantonal assemblies of the BH Federation, in the assemblies of the entities and House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of BH. In addition, President and Vice President of Republika Srpska will be elected.

Having monitored the pre-election campaign on the eve of the General Elections, the Coalition of Non-Governmental Organizations in BH “IZBORI 2000” (ELECTIONS 2000) and the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina estimate that this campaign has been the dirtiest campaign from the beginning of the multi-party elections in this country.

Some political parties, among which HDZ, SDA and SDS are taking significant place, directed their campaign towards homogenization of the voting body on the national basis and towards satanization of political rivals, particularly multi-national political parties and the international community.

The campaign was rich with untruth facts on political opponents and inflammable speech and speech of hatred.

One of the characteristics of this campaign was the active inclusion of some religious officers in the election campaign. The Bishop, Ratko Peric, was in service of HDZ, calling the religious followers to vote for this party. The Cardinal, Vinko Puljic, was also in service of HDZ, implicitly supporting the initiatives of this party and participating at the meeting organized by the HDZ. Besides, the religious buildings were used as places for agitation. In Una-Sana Canton, the majority of meetings of SDA was held within the opening ceremonies of mosques or within the religious activities.

The Party for Bosnia and Herzegovina, BH Patriotic Party and HDZ grounded their election campaign on the anti-Dayton slogans.

BPS and the Party for BH pleaded for annulment of entities while HDZ pleaded for annexation of parts of BH to Croatia, as said by Vice President of that party, Marko Tokic at the election campaign meeting in Tomislavgrad. Tokic said that “HDZ will fulfil the centennial aspiration of BH Croats to connect to the mother country, the only one and eternal Croatia”.

However, the greatest threat to the regularity of the upcoming elections presents the announced referendum of the Croat people with HDZ standing behind it, which is to be held on the very day of general elections. Holding of referendum presents direct obstruction of electoral process and means violation of electoral rules, the parties obliged to respect when applying for the elections. The Coalition of NGO BH “IZBORI 2000” and the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights ask from the Provisional Election Commission and Electoral Appellate Sub-Commission to undertake all necessary measures in order to prevent electoral irregularities and to sanction attempts of making obstructions.

During the election campaign, inadmissible manipulation with children was recorded as well by which the provisions of the Convention of the United Nations on the Right of Children and other relevant international documents regulating the right of children and election procedures were violated. The most drastic example was the manifestation in Brcko that took place from 17 to 20 October. During the manifestation,. the SDS took a number of high-school students to the streets who shouted slogans inspiring hatred against non-Serbs. They also expressed intentions to change the borders of BH, and there were violence and destruction manifested.

The Election Appellate Sub-Commission has sanctioned one TV spot of HDZ by the decision according to which a ban for broadcasting was imposed, and SDA by the decision to remove its logo from traffic road. Mirnes Ajanovic, President of BOSS, was reprimanded for ungrounded and mongering statements in a TV debate. In addition, posters and leaflets were distributed with the aim to compromise and disqualify electoral rivals by using nationalistic and mongering language.

Radio and TV stations have mainly broadcast election campaign correctly, respecting the rules of the Independent Media Commission and Provisional Election Commission. However, there were registered talk show hosts supporting some parties as it was the case on TV on Una-Sana Canton and the host, Senad Ramic.

Although the security situation during the whole campaign was favorable, there were several cases of violence. In Cazin, the members of SDP, Ekrem Berberovic and Arman Kazlagic were beaten up. They were beaten up by the relapser, Fikret Besirevic who has been hiding behind the immunity of being deputy. In Vitez, a meeting was stopped because of a false announcement of planted bomb. In the settlement of Svojat, municipality of Zivinice, a big group of SDP sympathizers while returning from election campaign meeting was stopped. The SDP flag was first taken away from them and then burned down. In Srebrenica, President of the municipal SDS, Momcilo Cvijanovic, by force prevented public debate organized by the Coalition “IZBORI 2000” the aim of which was a dialogue among the citizens and candidates for elections.

We should point out the activities of about hundred non-governmental organizations of the Coalition of BH NGOs “IZBORI 2000” that have engaged in mobilization of voters for elections, on the education of voters and monitoring of the campaign. Besides, the Coalition of BH NGO “IZBORI 2000” has organized more than 100 public debates on which the candidates were answering to the questions of citizens relating to all the essential issues for future of Bosnia and Herzegovina. On the very day of elections, the non-governmental organizations will also monitor and estimate the elections.

Assuming that scheduled referendum of the Croatian people will not jeopardize the regularity of elections, noted deviations from the rules which define conditions for fair and democratic elections, according to the Coalition of BH NGO and Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in BH, should not bring into question the validity of elections and freedom of voters to vote undisturbedly and according to their conviction.

On this occasion, we would also like to emphasize the necessity of passing the BH Election Law soonest as significant assumption for further improvement of election process and for undertaking accountability for elections by domestic institutions.

The Coalition of BH NGO “IZBORI 2000” is determined to engage in more active inclusion of BH civic society in the election process in future as well.

Sarajevo, 8 November 2000
No.: 03 A-11/2000

For the Coalition of BH NGO “IZBORI 2000”
and the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in BH

Srdjan Dizdarevic