REPORT
Analysis of the process and the
results of the general elections
held on 5 October 2002
On 5 October 2002, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, general elections were held
for the representatives of the House of Representatives of the
Parliamentary Assembly of BiH, members of the Presidency of
BiH, representatives of the National Assembly of Republika
Srpska, President and Vice President of RS, representatives of
the House of Representatives of the BiH Federation Parliament,
representatives in the cantonal assemblies and municipal
council of Zepce. Of 2,343,075 registered voters, 1,231,571
citizens or 53.94 percent went to the polls, which represents
the least response to elections since the war.
In the BiH Federation, 799,163 citizens or 55.48
percent went to polls, while in the Republika Srpska 432,408
or 51.30 percent.
MAIN
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ELECTORAL PROCESS
ELECTORAL CAMPAIGN
The Coalition of Non-Governmental Organizations "Elections
2002", which gathered 125 associations from the whole
country, conducted the non-party campaign for fair, free and
democratic elections by motivating the citizens to take part
in the electoral process, by educating the voters and
promoting the Election Law, by organizing over 100 public
debates in all larger cities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, by
realizing the song, leaflet and poster with the slogan
"Think for Yourself", by organizing
press-conferences and reacting with statements for public, and
it also conducted survey of public opinion and monitored the
campaigns of the political parties, media and elections as
such.
During the election campaign and public debates, the Coalition noted
lesser interest of citizens for elections, particularly of
young people, and it tried additionally to animate the voting
body, warning at the same time of danger of abstention.
Generally speaking, public debates in the organization of the
Coalition were successfully organized and have proven to be a
good model notwithstanding the number of the electoral
gatherings and electronic media broadcasts dealing with the
elections.
The Coalition of NGO “Elections 2002”, together with the Helsinki
Committee for Human Rights in BiH, in a joint 2 October
statement for public, pointed at some incidents and excesses
engineered by those political forces whose aim was to create
the atmosphere of fear and interethnic tensions, with the
ultimate aim to homogenize the voters on ethnic basis and
orient them towards siding with extremist nationalistic
options. However, the Coalition and the Helsinki Committee estimated
that these incidents did neither seriously endanger the
regularity of the campaign nor the regularity of the
elections.
The
Coalition and the Helsinki Committee pointed at the fact that
the electoral campaigning passed in an atmosphere in which a
large number of protagonists were trying to discredit their
rivals and on that basis to gain confidence of the voters. The
campaign, which can be characterized as dirty campaign,
enshrouded in climate of low blows, inflammatory vocabulary
and language of hatred, in an attempt to gain advantage over
the political rivals, resulted, among else, in confusing and
even embittering voters, causing considerable lack of interest
of the electoral body for the process of campaign, which
reflected on elections as such.
Under such circumstances, the programmes of the parties remained
completely in the background. On the other side, election
candidates in their speeches and debates in electronic media
approached closer to the issues of interest for the citizens,
such as the issues of economic recovery of the country,
employment, education, approaching the European Integrations.
Nevertheless, in these speeches the rhetoric prevailed over
the competence of the candidates and seriousness and
well-foundedness of the expounded programs.
We particularly pointed at the inadmissible interference of secret
services with the daily politics and therefore their implicit
involvement in the electoral campaign. Contrary to the
principle of separation of church and state, some religious
officials, including even the leaders of religious
communities, directly engaged in promoting particular
political parties, the parties with national omen. The parties
in Republika Srpska successively paid court to the Serb
Orthodox Church, which showed a special inclination towards
the Serb Democratic Party. The Riaset of Islamic Community
banned political campaigning in the mosques and other
religious facilities only at the time when massive animating
of religious believers to vote for the Party of Democratic
Action had been lasting for quite some time. Even
reisu-l-ulema, Mustafa ef. Ceric himself was directly engaged
in that direction which caused disapproval of the democratic
public. The priests of the Roman Catholic Church, especially
in Herzegovina, activated themselves in favour of the
Coalition led by the Croat Democratic Union. The Arch-Bishop
of Vrhbosna, Cardinal Vinko Puljic, was criticised for
directly campaigning in favour of the Croat Democratic Union,
claiming that the Croat officials from the Democratic Alliance
for Changes did not enjoy the support from Croats.
During the electoral campaign the children were misused and consequently
their right not to be manipulated for political aims was
violated. The
Coalition warned that taking the children to political rallies
represents a violation of the UN Convention on the Rights of
the Child.
As it was estimated in a joint statement of the Coalition of NGO and the
Helsinki Committee, electronic media, with rare exceptions,
were covering the campaign correctly, adhering to the
provisions of the Code adopted by the Communications
Regulatory Agency. Radio and TV stations were trying to give
equal and balanced treatment to participants of elections.
However, passing on the releases of political parties and
reports from the press conferences, and the quite unexciting
dialogue broadcasts could not sufficiently motivate the voters
and make them interested in more actively taking part in
shaping the policies the future protagonists of the political
life of the country will stand for.
Written media, with few exceptions,
sided with political parties and leaders, without publicly
expressing such an attitude and without giving the possibility
to the voters to make their own choice on the basis of
objectively and impartially presented platforms and
candidates. The self-regulatory concept in the area of written
media demonstrated in the course of this campaign all its
shortcomings and pitfalls.
ELECTIONS
On October 5, the day of elections, 120 monitors of the Coalition of
Non-Governmental Organisations “Elections 2002” visited
about 500 polling stations (of 4,106) or somewhat over 12
percent of polling stations. It was observed that the main
problems were voting lists being out-of-date. A large number
of citizens, about 2 percent, was not registered in the voting
lists and thus could not realise their right to vote, the
responsibility for which is on the organs of authorities,
particularly municipal.
Otherwise, the work of polling boards in the majority of cases was
correct and professional. However, in one polling station in
the municipality of Vukosavlje, it was observed that a smaller
group of people cast their votes for the whole village, i.e.
for 120 voters. In addition, some parties were distributing
propaganda material and agitating for their candidates at a
distance lesser than fifty meters from the polling station,
which was recorded by the Coalition’s monitors on Jahorina
and in Zvornik. At the polling station Pilica near Zvornik,
the monitor Obren Markovic while guiding the voters to the
polling station was taken away by the police. President of the
polling station in Kladari Donji, municipality of Modrica,
Petar Kojic, according to SNSD, voted on behalf of many
voters, some of which were deceased, while in Koprivnska
Trebava, in the same municipality, the President of the
polling station, Svetlana Maksimovic, was openly trying to
influence the voters to vote for SDS. In the Sarajevan
municipality of Novi Grad, the President of the polling board
was assisting the voters while voting, which is in
contravention to the law. In some polling stations in Kljuc
and Novi Grad (Sarajevo) access of monitors of NGOs was
denied, and in some cases, the monitors in Novi Grad were even
harassed.
The Coalition NGO "Elections 2002" in its 7 October statement
for public stated that the elections were fair and democratic,
and that the observed shortcomings did not have considerably
effect on the electoral results.
BEHAVIOUR
AND EFFECTS OF PROTAGONISTS OF ELECTIONS
INCIDENTS
During the election campaigning and on the very day of elections,
incidents and excesses that took place are to be registered. The electoral contest, even abusive behaviour, politically
motivated, started much earlier than official campaign. At the
exit of Trebinje, a machine-gun fire was opened at a car
carrying Mirna Sehovic – Zupcevic, a daughter of the SDP’s
official Dragana Zupcevic, with her husband Besim. Luckily,
except trauma, there were no more serious consequences. This
case had political implications, even if it was “only” an
attempt of mugging. The
electoral gathering of the Economic Block HDU in Mostar, which
gathered several thousands people, was stopped when an
anonymous person had activated tear gas. A member of the Croat
Democratic Union and a former police officer, Zvonko Kukic,
issued threats to the Presidential candidate of the People’s
Party Working for Prosperity, Mladen Ivankovic Lijanovic and
afterwards physically attacked a TV cameraman Ivan Javornik,
preventing him from performing his job at the public party
organized by Lijanovic. The HDZ’s official from Livno, Ivica
Ceko, physically assaulted the Vice President of the Croat
Peasants’ Party and representative in the House of
Representatives of the Parliament of the Federation of Bosnia
and Herzegovina, Ante Colak, when he stripped off a propaganda
poster of HDZ from the entrance door of the Livno Canton
Government building. In
Rudo, after a public debate in which political parties took
place, a car of the holder of the list of the Social
Democratic Party in the election unit 6, Bojan Bojic, was
demolished. Prior to this incident, the SDP’s posters in the
city were stripped off and cut, and on the same places, a name
of SDS was written with spray in many places.
In Kakanj, by all indications, "Muslim
Brotherhood" launched an "attack" over the
posters of SDP, by sticking over the head of Zlatko Lagumdzija
a message "Islam controls over Bosnia", and at the
bottom it was written www.islam.bosna.com, which is the site
of "MB" on the Internet.
Otherwise, there was a real war waged with electoral posters and large
boards. In many
places, posters were cut, damaged, and boards pulled down. The
premises of the parties were also attacked, as was the case
with the Democratic people’s Community in Sarajevo, and the
Social Democratic Party in Zvornik and Liberal Democratic
Party in Travnik.
A negative atmosphere in the electoral period was particularly created in
Republika Srpska through chauvinistic provocations and attacks
on primarily Bosniak returnees. The Serb extremists were
especially aggressive after the victory of basketball players
of Yugoslavia at the World basketball Championship, in the
territory of Prijedor and particularly in the settlement of
Kozarac, with the largest number of returns of Bosniaks,
registered in percents, as well as in Brcko. The nationalistic
attacks were recorded in Bijeljina, Janja, Tarevci near
Modrica and Sarajevan settlement Dobrinja. By the mob chanted
"Yugoslavia, Yugoslavia" and "This is
Serbia", Bosniaks were being insulted being called
"Turks" and "balijas" (derogatory name for
Bosniaks) and even threatened by slaughter. Such messages were
inscribed in many places cities and places in RS. A Bosniak
returnee was shot in a village Zakalje near Gorazde. A newly
built mosque was destroyed in Kljuc near Gacko. These
aggressive outbursts are not in a direct connection with the
elections but, however, they could have affected Bosniaks
(not) to turn up at the polling stations in Republika Srpska.
Stasa Kozarac, a candidate of the Union of Independent Social
Democrats, boasted at the public debate in Rudo and was proud
of his predecessors who had been Chetnics in the Second World
War, as well as his descendants in the recent war in Bosnia
and Herzegovina.
On the very day of elections, in Sekovici, when the first unofficial
results were announced, the neighbours, supporters of the Serb
Democratic Party and the Union of Independent Social
Democrats, got into fight. One day later, seven persons, among
whom there was a member of the Interior Ministry of RS,
physically assaulted the members of the main Board of the
Socialist party of RS, Radivoj and Milovan Maksimovic.
CITIZENS
Frequent elections, unfulfilled electoral promises, delays in the reforms
and failure to achieve economic progress, various cases where
the politicians and politics as such were discredited in all
sorts of ways, and the dirty electoral campaign caused that
many of the voters chose to abstain from voting. For
conditions in West European countries, more than fifty percent
of voter turnout would be considered as enviable success, but
in BiH it was a sign of apathy. Judging by all, it was mostly
the young people and democratically oriented citizens who
refrained from voting and this turned out to be of a direct
benefit to national parties which had more disciplined
constituencies.
Of a particular concern is a voting by refugees and displaced persons.
There is a multiple reduction of response of the voters
living abroad, and there is also an obvious fall in turning
out at polling stations by displaced persons. When speaking of
the refugees, it is obvious that a large number of them
permanently resolved their status in the asylum countries and
actually gave up from homeland. As for the displaced persons,
frequent changes of residential addresses additionally
affected on poor response, anger because of evictions, and not
resolved accommodation and existence on the pre-war addresses,
nationalistic provocations and activities conducted by local
authorities, particularly in RS, discouraged returnees to turn
up for elections. The illustration of this is the municipality
of Modrica and Vukosavlje in which a large number of Bosniak
returnees could not vote because allegedly they had not been
registered, although they produced their registration
certificates.
Considerable number of citizens abstained from voting, although they
turned out at elections, due to unupdated voting lists and
unorganised polling stations. In addition, the citizens
expressed their discontent, even desperation, with too
expensive campaign and investing large amounts into special
supports and iron structures for placing jumbo posters.
PARTIES, COALITIONS, CANDIDATES
57 parties, nine coalitions and three independent candidates competed at
the elections. The BiH Election Commission verified the
participation of 7,537 candidates, while almost 1,000 of them
did not pass the verification process for various reasons,
most frequently due to unlawful occupancy of someone else’s
property or because the candidates were double occupants of
apartments.
The biggest national parties – Party of Democratic Action, Serb
Democratic Party and Croat Democratic Union (in a coalition
with two smaller parties) again won the largest number of
votes, while the Social Democratic Party, as the most powerful
party after the last elections and the leading force of the
Democratic Alliance for Changes presently in power at both the
state and BiH Federation level experienced the heaviest
defeat. It should
be noted here that all the parties based in the RS laid their
stress on national (ethnic) point of view and on the alleged
endangered condition of Serbs, Serb national feeling and the
Republika Srpska. National homogenisation was additionally
fuelled by manipulations in the RS with the truth on
Srebrenica, ungrounded claims on massive responsibility of
Bosniaks and Croats for war crimes against Serbs, trial to
Slobodan Milosevic, the statement of Vojislav Kostunica, the
President of FRY, that RS is only temporarily separated from
Serbia, even by the sports events involving the national teams
from Yugoslavia. The Serb Democratic Party also won some votes
on the basis of the promise that they will allocate land plots
free of charge to Serb refugees and displaced persons, as was
for example the case in Modrica. The Croat Democratic Union,
in its appearance in the leading media and during central
rallies did not aggressively use the national standpoint;
however, it was used in local debates and by local media
outlets. The HDZ (Croat Democratic Union) has shown obvious
animosity toward the People’s Party - Through Work to
Prosperity. The SDA (the Party of Democratic Action), with the
support of Islamic Community, strived to mobilize Bosniak
Muslims around the thesis of Bosniaks being allegedly
threatened by the Social Democratic Party and
“crypto-communists” whose intention was supposedly to
bring into disrepute the renowned Bosniak military and
political figures (referring to court actions against two
groups of Bosniaks), and thereby to weaken the strength of
Bosniak people and question the defensive nature of the recent
war. Also in circulation were the warnings that Islam was
being shown as synonymous with terrorism. The BiH Patriotic
Party and People’s Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina tried to
use the court actions against Bosniaks in the opposite sense,
demanding that the investigation against the previous police
high official Bakir Alispahic be extended.
The Social Democratic Party was handicapped by egocentric campaign in
which its leader was given the centre of attention; at the
same time, his image in media was given in a pronouncedly
negative context. The Party of Democratic Action and the Party
for BiH grew stronger at the expense of SDP and will be a key
factor in the post-electoral coalition and constitution of
government, particularly at the state and the FBiH level. In
the RS, the Union of Independent Social Democrats that won
extraordinary number of votes, and the Party of Democratic
Progress, will have a position similar to position of Party
for BiH in the FBiH. The latter two parties, if they join with
some smaller parties, could be alternative option to SDS. The
smaller parties performed poorly and it is obvious that BiH is
far from forming a liberal political centre, which is
necessary for the process of democratisation and establishment
of a civic alternative to national parties.
During the five days before the elections and on the very day of
elections, 80 objections of the parties were filed, mainly
concerning the poster issues and SMS messages and letters that
were in violation of the election silence rule. A lady
candidate of SDA for cantonal assembly was suspended because
of the language of hatred and the party was fined. Several
parties were punished by fines. The most serious nationalistic
incident was caused by the Croatian Party of Rights’ Club,
which was fined and ordered to strike off from its promotion
materials the Ustashi (Croatian fascist movement) salute
"Za dom spremni" (Ready /to fight/ for home).
Indeed, at the electoral gathering of the United Party of
Rights Block there could not be seen any insignia of Bosnia
and Herzegovina – instead, the anthem of the Republic of
Croatia was played.
President of the BOSS, Mirnes Ajanovic, was accused of demanding from the
candidates of this party to "give back" 100,000 KM
each should they leave the party after the elections, on the
basis of a claim that this was the sum invested into each of
the candidates. The appearance of Jadranko Prlic, the leader
of ProENS, as sponsor of the Miss of BiH contest attracted
particular attention, since the TV of FBiH, which broadcast
the event, had not been previously notified of his appearance,
and the management of the TV claimed that they were thus
manipulated.
ELECTION COMMISSION
Since the 5 October elections were the first to be organized by domestic
authorities, under domestic law, and without OSCE and
international peace mission playing the dominant role, it
might be said that the elections were conducted altogether
successfully. A
serious failure was the fact that because of the mistake of
the Election Commission of BiH 1,115,000 ballots had to be
printed anew, which was not only an issue of financial nature.
Some of the parties also objected to the ballots being printed
abroad (the Election Commission first chose a company from
Croatia, and then another one from Hungary), while the
Constitutional-Legal Commission of the BiH Parliament reached
the opinion that the Election Commission had violated the law
on protection of personal data on citizens, which forbids
these data being taken out of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Although the President of the Election Commission, Lidija
Korac, resolutely claimed that there were no deceased on the
lists, 4,700 deceased were struck off the central list later
on. On the very day of elections, the monitors of the
Coalition found on the voter lists the names of people who had
died, some of them even 10 years ago.
The Election Commission was forced to warn the
municipal commissions that they did not comply with the
Election Law in the matter of appointment of voting boards.
All these failures could have as a consequence that a number
of the citizens did not turn up at the elections due to their
doubts concerning good organization and the regularity of
elections.
As already noted above, on the day of elections there were big problems
with (non)registration of voters, and lack of organization at
the polling stations, in consequence of which some voters gave
up on voting at all. The Director of the Coalition of NGO
"Elections 2002" Srdjan Dizdarevic sent on 14 June a
letter to the President of the Election Commission, Lidija
Korac, conveying the opinion of the assembly of this
association that the deadline for registration should be
extended in order to enable all qualified voters to realize
their right in practice. This suggestion was not accepted.
Particularly alarming are the cases of abuse of post of those
with most responsible positions at the polling stations. On
many stations, the secrecy of the voting process was
jeopardized because the ballot boxes were improperly placed or
shielded from view. Quite a number of older voters, and of
those with impaired sight or illiterate asked for assistance
during the voting, because they could not manage themselves,
particular problem being the oversized voting ballot for
cantonal assemblies. In Novi Travnik one person voted at
several places, reported the monitor.
In Breza there were cases of unauthorized voting on
behalf of other persons, because of which a complaint was
filed. At the constituency of Vranici, in the area of Gorazde,
which covered nine villages with mainly older population, it
took 3 hours on foot to arrive at one polling station, while
no transport was provided. A similar problem was registered in
the area of Bosanski Petrovac.
It was noticeable that quite a few members of the voting boards were not
trained to perform this sensitive job. Because of that, and
because of long queues and insufficient number of ballot boxes
and partitions, and unsecured secrecy of voting, the voters
occasionally protested and entered in verbal duels with the
members of voting boards. There were tense situations recorded
between the members of voting boards and the monitors. At the
voting station in the primary school "Fatima Gunic"
in the Sarajevan settlement of Alipasino polje it was noticed
that the voting board was composed mainly of relatives and
neighbours, who did not professionally conduct their task.
Thus, the members of the board used to lean over the shoulders
of the voters, explaining the process of voting. Lack of
serious professional work was also noticed at the neighbouring
polling station in the same school, where the members of the
board introduced themselves as "SDA supporter" or
"Alija’s". When it was found out at this polling
station that out of 4 polling papers one was lacking, a
“wise” solution was reached and the three remaining
ballots were put away in a drawer. In the third polling
station in the Sarajevan settlement of Novi Grad, the
President and the members of the board commented on the
statements of the political leaders, and among else, it was
said in a discussion that Fikret Abdic, candidate for the
Presidency member, deserved to be killed.
The monitors of the Union of Independent Social Democrats in the area of
Jahorina had the voters register for that polling station and
checked the identity cards of the voters.
In Livno, the members of the Social Democratic Party
distributed pieces of paper from which it was visible how one
should vote.
BODIES OF AUTHORITIES
The biggest failures of the local bodies of authorities related to the
registration of the voters and to seeing to it that polling
locations be equipped in the best possible way for smooth
secret voting, without unnecessary queues, confusion and
irritation of citizens. Particularly careful consideration
should be given to examining the voting conditions for
returnees and displaced persons, for which both the
authorities and the voting boards were responsible. The police
forces performed their job very well. In only one place (Novo
Sarajevo) the presence of policemen in uniform could be
observed in the radius less than 50 meters away from the
polling station.
INTERNATIONAL FACTORS
OSCE helped the Election Commission in their work and supervised the
election process, by letting local staff do the majority of
work for the first time. The Deputy Head of the OSCE Mission,
the Ambassador Dieter Voltman, when leaving BiH warned that
the election campaign based on scandals could only discourage
the voters and underscored the importance of
the votes of young people.
The High Representative of International Community to BiH, Paddy Eshdown,
based his approach to elections on the promotion of his
programme of reforms, with demand that the relevant political
factors support it.
In his attempts to animate the voters, Eshdown
emphasized that the OHR had no favourites among the parties
and used the occasion to invite the voters to vote for reform
forces, without further specifying who they were. The High
Representative also sent personal letters to 1.4 million voter
addresses, inviting the citizens to vote. In his post-election
reactions, Eshdown stated that the victory of the national
parties did not mean the come back of the nationalism and
emphasized that he would cooperate with anyone supporting the
reform efforts of the peace mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The High Representative of the European Union for the Foreign
Affairs and Security, Xavier Solana, and the Commissioner for
International Relations of the European Commission, Chris
Patten, during their visits to BiH, also tried to animate the
voters, pointing out the importance of the election results
for European prospects of BiH. The Ombudsmen for Human Rights
in BiH, Frank Orton, appealed that votes be given to those who
are against corruption, bureaucracy and interference with the
work of media. The
Russian Ambassador, Valerie Grishchenko, openly gave his
support to SDP.
Of all the international leading factors, the USA took the most resolute
position. The Ambassador Clifford Bond, among else, emphasized
that his country could not consider the nationalists in the
governments as legitimate, and particularly criticized the
Serb Democratic Party. The electoral efforts of the USA in Bosnia and Herzegovina
were crowned by the address of the State Secretary, Collin
Powell, who sent a clear message to the citizens to give their
vote to those "who will committedly work on
democracy" indicating the risk of falling back to the
"dark road toward ethnic divisions".
At the end of the day, in the most delicate post-war elections, the
international authorities again did not demonstrate a
consistent approach. The inconsistency in attitudes toward
Bosnia and Herzegovina and the realization of the primary
tasks (poor return of refuges and DPs, failure to arrest war
criminals, slow reform processes, bureaucratic sluggishness
and self-complacency of members of the mission) contributed
directly to the apathy of citizens and low voter turnout.
MEDIA
On 3 June, the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in BiH and the
Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Republika Srpska,
together with the Coalition of NGOs "Elections 2002"
sent an appeal to political parties and media to comply with
the provisions of the Election Law and the Code of Conduct of
Electronic Media during the period of election campaign. As
already noted above, the electronic media were mainly correct
in performing their task, which was partially the result of
the fear from possible sanctions of the Communication
Regulatory Agency (CRA). The CRA did receive certain number of
complaints, and this agency served as particular mediator
between the electronic media and the political parties. There
were cases of partiality, like for example, in the broadcast
of RTV of Una-Sana Canton, when an anchorwoman showed her
preferences for the candidate of the Social Democratic Party,
unfairly interrupting the candidates of the Bosnian party and
the Party of Democratic People’s Community. The local TV IC
Kakanj was obviously partial to the Party of Democratic
Action.
The Coalition also appealed that such rules of conduct of electronic
media be established that will not put in question their
existence, pointing to the consequences of the ban on paid
political advertising and of the media being obligated to
present the electoral candidates free of charge, which was in
contravention to the principles of the market economy, which
are the basis of work for about 150 radio and TV stations
throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina.
What particularly raised concern in the election campaign was the conduct
of the so-called independent daily and weekly papers, which
put themselves at the service of the political parties and
individual politicians. "Dnevni avaz" extremely
aggressively led the campaign in favour of the Party for BiH,
Haris Silajdzic and Nijaz Durakovic. The management of
"Dnevni avaz" refused to print the previously paid
for proclamation of the Socialist Democratic Party because of
the criticisms against "DA" addressed by the
President of SDP, who termed the campaign led by this paper as
"roguish", making hints at the notion of
"mafia" also. "Dani" also directly
supported the Party for BiH, while "Slobodna Bosna"
sided with the Social Democratic Party and Zlatko Lagumdzija,
"Ljiljan" invested all its energy into promoting the
Party of Democratic Action, with attempts to disqualify its
rivals. In their efforts, these papers resorted to the
language of hatred also. In Republika Srpska, particularly
obvious was the partisan conduct of "Glas srpski" in
favour of the Serb Democratic Party. Siding with a party or a
coalition is a phenomenon known in societies with developed
democracy as well, but it would be fair to declare openly the
affinities toward a party or political person and to campaign
in their favour without insulting and disqualifying the rival
parties.
During electoral campaign, media were exposed to increased pressure
exerted by the political parties that was, among others,
registered by the SOS line for journalists. According to the
survey conducted by the "Internews BiH", published
in mid September, which comprised 57 radio and TV stations,
the Party of Democratic Action sent 12 threatening letters and
two letters to those media. The Social Democratic Party sent 4
such letters, Party for BiH 3 and the Serb Democratic Party 2.
As for the newspapers, it seems that the editorial office of
"Dnevni list" based in Mostar was exposed to the
most fierce attacks and pressures after having oriented
towards free journalism with the arrival of the new owner thus
leaving exclusive acting in favour of the Croat Democratic
Union and Croatian ultranationalists. There were raids
organized into the editorial office of "Dnevni
list", threats were issued for physical attacks, and one
journalist was hit. The owner of the paper, Mirjana Skoko,
claims that the assailant was the caterer, Stanislav Krezic,
complaining of the police that did not want to arrest him.
One member of the Croat Association of War Disabled
Persons- HVIDRA also issued threats to "Dnevni
list". Banjaluka based "Nezavisne novine"
published a facsimile of a letter of the President of the
Party of Democratic Progress, Mladen Ivanic, to municipal
boards of that party, complaining particularly of the lack of
support of media to the PDP and Prime Minister, Ivanic.
Reisu-l-ulema Mustafa ef Ceric also exerted pressure over the media,
particularly on "Slobodna Bosna" (which indeed was
incorrect toward him), seriously insulting the editor-in-chief
who was also threatened by imams in the mosques and in all
media who were criticizing reis and the Party of Democratic
Action. Reis sent
a letter exerting pressure against the Federation television
because of the manner in which one of his public appearances
was treated.
The most serious accusation against a journalist was stated by one of the
holders of the list of the Croat Peasants’ Party, Ilija
Simic, for "Dnevni avaz" claiming that some
journalists were receiving money in the election campaign.
Simic said that he would not name them in order not to make
harm to the CPP and not to raise hue and cry against himself,
and not to “confuse the people”. However, such sweeping
accusations do not contribute to a development of a democratic
dialogue, for they saw doubt in possible existence of
corruption of all the journalists and media outlets.
NGO
For the non-governmental organizations in BiH, these elections were
chance for affirmation through direct provision of assistance
to citizens to express themselves as active protagonists of
the electoral process and forces that may efficiently make
influence on the programmes of the parties and their behaviour
in the authorities. That aim was only partly achieved both
because of the lack of interest with a large number of
citizens and doubts into own social power and because of the
arrogance of the political parties and because of inadequate
organization of the NGOs and incapacity of their members for
such an ambitious task. In the work of the Coalition of NGOs,
there is certain progress being made, although the
contribution of the individual members of this association was
uneven. Some NGOs
were totally passive and hiding behind the joint firm.
As for the young people, we should particularly mention the campaign
“(Visit(remind) authorities)” which was conducted in
North-eastern Bosnia, in RS, within the project "Youth
and local authorities 2002". We should stress the example
of Orasje as a positive example of respect for and assistance
to NGOs in media.
CONCLUSIONS
ELECTION PROCESS
Bosnia and Herzegovina proved to be able to organise the elections with
the assistance and logical responsibility of the peace mission
of international community within the framework of its mandate
in BiH, however, still under preconditions that do not
guarantee optimal conditions for democratic declaring, here
speaking primarily of (non)accessibility of refugees and
displaced persons and minority (returnees) groups to realize
the electoral right.
Basically, the Election Commission did its job well and created
conditions to evaluate the elections as fair, democratic and
free. Better coordination with the municipal commissions,
electoral bodies, bodies of authorities, non-governmental
organizations, citizens and media outlets could contribute to
more massive response of the voters in elections and to better
quality conditions for voting on the very day of elections.
The international peace mission in BiH and its key factors (OSCE, OHR,
SFOR, IPTF) during the elections gave direct and discrete
support to democratic growing of the state of Bosnia and
Herzegovina in line with their mandates. A part of the
diplomatic corps in BiH was more specific about the outcome of
the elections that would satisfy them.
More and more media feel themselves as significant subject in the
electoral process and its consequences. However, their
behaviour is primarily determined by the economic situation
and in that context political power over them. Some of the
so-called independent media lost that non-aligned innocence,
not informing the public of it neither before hand or
afterwards, which could have been a democratic act.
BEHAVIOUR OF THE PARTIES
The last elections have shown that the political parties are getting used
to democratic procedure, although it is more due to the
electoral process being legally regulated than to their own
democratic enlightenment.
The fight for coming to or returning to power was led by all available
means at hand: it was not the arguments for or against the
programmes that were in the limelight, but rather the attempts
to disqualify the electoral rivals at any price.
Particularly alarming was their insisting on elements that might provoke
interethnic or interentity intolerance, accompanied by
war-mongering undertones, because they were not to die out
with the end of the electoral race, but remained as a message
which might last in the political thinking of the voters and
have a bearing upon their attitude toward the state of Bosnia
and Herzegovina as internationally recognised legal structure
through which to voice their opinion.
The religious feelings and the authority of religious leaders were this
time again markedly abused for the sake of the promotion of
national parties. This tinted the elections with strong
clerical tone, which is contrary to sustaining the principle
of separation of church from the state.
POSITION OF CITIZENS
The parties and politicians treated the citizens as objects, as mere
voting machine, not as active protagonists of political life
for whose sake the parties and politicians exist in the first
place. There were but few concrete programmes that could
animate and attract the citizens, which reflected in their
being passive in the electoral process.
Certain parties and political leaders and some public figures and media
took the liberty to scold the citizens who had not voted,
invoking some obligation of theirs to vote. The right to vote
is exclusively the right and not an obligation, and therefore
the citizens can use that right as they will. Those who
criticize the citizens are thus overlooking the fact that it
was them who failed to animate the voters, neglecting their
poor performance, and would like to shift the responsibility
to anonymous citizens, unable to comprehend the essence of
human rights and freedoms.
The depressing social situation especially discourages the young, who are
as such the most vital and inventive element of society in
every sense, political one included, and this is therefore a
problem that deserves every possible attention.
NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANISATIONS
The frustrating feeling of bleak prospects in the state of Bosnia and
Herzegovina as an outcome of political, economic and social
reality, which was reflected in the electoral process and the
results of elections, should be a cue for individual and
collective self-re-evaluation of non-governmental
organizations. The analysis of their work and performance on
the background of concrete reality, as shown by the elections
among else, is a precondition for restructuring and
reprogramming of the NGO activities - for the purpose of their becoming a constantly active
factor in the creation of social climate in which the citizen
as individual or as member of various associations instead of
being the object of political manipulations becomes a
political protagonist whose opinion must be respected by the
politicians, both by those in power and by those from
opposition. In this context, absolute priority must be given
to the stand taken toward young generation. The Coalition of
NGOs expects that the support and assistance of international
factors will continue; however, they should also re-examine
their role and their part of the responsibility for the
overall situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina and for its
prospects for future.
Therefore, the directorate of the Coalition of NGOs "Elections
2002" submits this analytical and critical report not
only as a comment on electoral events and outcomes, but as a
paper that could – hopefully - contribute to stimulating the
efforts of all the relevant factors aimed at overcoming the
difficult social war and post-war traumas in Bosnia and
Herzegovina and developing such democratic environment in
which the citizens will increasingly be able to take their own
and the destiny of their state into their own hands.
Sarajevo, 16 October 2002
No: 10-10/2002