Central Election Commission legalized the conflict of interests; TI BiH filed a new lawsuit

Sarajevo, September 19th 2008 – Transparency International Bosnia and Herzegovina filed again a lawsuit to the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina against Central Election Commission (CIK) which, even with the BiH Court’s verdict that obliges CIK to establish the existence of conflict of interests in the case of Nedzad Brankovic, the FBiH Prime Minister, declared themselves as unauthorized and brought a conclusion which adjourns the procedure. TI BiH appealed to the BiH Court with the request to decide on the existence of conflict of interests in full competence, considering that the CIK refuses to implement the law and to carry out the enforceable judgment.

In explanation, after the CIK ignored the TI BiH request to establish the existence of conflict of interests in the case of Mr. Nedzan Brankovic, because it had been confirmed that the Prime Minister Brankovic, while being a Prime Minister of Federation of BiH, is at the same time a shareholder in the Fund Management Company ABDS, which presents an obvious conflict of interests, since Brankovic’s private interests in the fund can influence his public role, TI BiH filed its initial lawsuit in order to convince the CIK to act according to the law and to bring a decision. The BiH Court accepted the lawsuit and ordered the Central Election Commission to act on the TI BiH request and establish the existence of conflict of interests in the period of 15 days from the verdict. However, the CIK ceased the procedure because of their alleged incompetence in this case.

“With this behavior of CIK, the conflict of interests is practically legalized in Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, having in mind the obstructions of introduction of the federal Law on conflict of interests”, said Srdjan Blagovcanin, Executive Director of TI BiH. Therefore, TI BiH, together with the coalition of NGOs “Odgovornost”, appealed to the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH with the request to establish the responsibility of CIK members, who continually undermine law enforcement and verdict executions.