Ten parties spent 4.5m KM during the campaign on TV and print ads alone

Banja Luka, 15. October 2014 — Transparency International of Bosnia and Herzegovina monitored and analyzed the election campaign for the selected 10 political parties, taking into account advertising in electronic and print media. The monitoring results showed that ten political parties spent 3,600,000 KM during the campaign, only on the lease of space in electronic and print media (10 TV stations and 9 print publications). When the amounts set aside for the preparation of advertisements are added to this, the total costs of advertising in these media amount to around 4.5 million KM.

This amount does not include leased terms in the media, such as broadcasts or broadcasts of pre-election rallies, of which there were many, but media houses did not mark these leased terms, which is why the line between advertising and regular TV programs is lost.

When comparing individual parties, the amounts indicate that the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) spent the most on this type of advertising, around 860,700, SNSD, which, when the advertisements of this party and the SNSD-DNS coalition add up, spent almost 870,000, and the Alliance for changes with a cost of about 775,000 KM. There are also the Alliance for a Better Future (SBB) with an estimated cost of advertising in electronic and print media of about 493,000, the Social Democratic Party of BiH (SDP) with about 406,500 KM, DNS with about 350,500, and the Democratic Front with about 220,000 KM. It is interesting that the People’s Party, for the sake of improvement, which was included in the monitoring, did not have advertisements on covered media houses, and that HDZ BiH had only two advertisements.

TI BiH also made a rough estimate of the cost of advertising on billboards, based on the price list of agencies, and reached a rough amount of at least 3,000,000 KM in total for political parties, so the total amount of covered advertising is 7.5 million KM.

It is necessary to mention that not all media houses are included here, as well as all types of advertising. If the costs of election rallies, posters, leaflets, internet advertising, buses, etc. were added up, the estimated costs would be many times higher.

TI BiH also monitored the pre-election rallies of political parties, and the data on advertising and rallies will be compared with the financial reports of political parties, after they are submitted to the Central Election Commission.

Also, TI BiH forwarded to the CEC BiH information on potential violations of the Law on Financing of Political Parties, which includes the use of public resources to promote political parties, and hopes that this information will be taken into account when auditing financial statements of parties.

Press rls – 15 October 2014 doc