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
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