SARAJEVO, October 3 (FENA) – Transparency International in Bosnia and Herzegovina (TIBiH) presented today the results of its monitoring of election campaign expenses, revealing that parties spent approximately 10.8 million KM on billboards, media advertisements (television and print), promotional materials, and campaign rallies by October 1.
As highlighted at a press conference, these amounts are only part of the total expenses, as they do not include advertising and campaign rally costs in the final days of the campaign, nor other forms of advertising that cannot be assessed, such as costs for ads on social media.
“According to the new provisions of the Election Law, parties are required to conduct all campaign financing through a special account and to submit a final report on all transactions from that account to the Central Election Commission (CEC) three days before election day, which includes funding sources. TIBiH has previously pointed out that parties reported significantly lower campaign expenses in previous years than those determined on the ground, as most did not have legal sources to justify the millions involved,” stated TIBiH.
TIBiH observers recorded over 2,500 instances in the past three months that could be characterized as the use of public resources for the election campaign or as direct violations of electoral legislation.
“A total of 123 reports have been submitted to the relevant institutions, and the Central Election Commission has imposed 18 sanctions totaling 115,500 KM in response to reports from TI BiH. Most of these penalties relate to premature campaigning, with action still pending on some reports, while numerous cases of public resource misuse continue to go unpunished,” it was emphasized.
TIBiH has already pointed out numerous examples of indirect vote buying through the distribution of one-time subsidies, with approximately 60 million KM distributed in the last three months from all levels of government.
“However, the CEC has taken the position that all one-time payments made before elections, which the government claims were budgeted, do not constitute misuse of public resources, leading to many TIBiH reports being dismissed,” it was noted.
According to TIBiH data, the CEC has received a total of 140 reports regarding the misuse of public resources, and only seven sanctions have been imposed by the start of the last week of the campaign, most of which relate to the misuse of communication resources and posts on social media.
Among other findings, 47 instances of child exploitation for political purposes were recorded, 79 cases of increased employment before elections, and 77 examples of providing special benefits such as free medical check-ups, public transport, or other public services during the campaign period.
According to TIBiH reports, 41 individuals were removed from the lists of presidents and deputy presidents of polling station committees due to established connections with political parties, while the CEC refused to remove more than 160 individuals for whom TI BiH provided evidence of their ties to political parties.
“It is evident that the technical amendments to the Election Law have not yielded the expected results in practice, both in punishing the misuse of public resources and preventing the establishment of party control over polling boards,” stated TIBiH.
