TI BIH has started monitoring the pre-election process: Invitation to citizens to report election irregularities

The focus of the monitoring will be the behavior of parties and candidates, misuse of public resources for party promotion, assessment of election campaign costs, as well as the behavior of public institutions and companies in the pre-election process. Also, all violations of the rules of conduct in the pre-election period, as well as threats to voters and all forms of pressure on voters, will be monitored.

TI BiH will report all observed irregularities to the competent institutions, and based on the first reports from the field, the Central Election Commission has already been sent the first reports about potential irregularities regarding voter lists as well as premature campaigns by parties and candidates. In addition to field observation, this year special attention will be paid to monitoring the digital and online space, and in order to determine violations of the rules of conduct in the pre-election period, the costs of online advertising will be calculated and all examples of premature or inappropriate paid advertising will be recorded.

During the monitoring of the pre-election process in 2020, Ti BiH recorded over 2,400 examples of abuse of public resources for the election campaign, and during the monitoring of only two forms of advertising, it was determined that the parties concealed at least 1.6 million KM of election campaign costs. In that period, TI BiH sent more than 120 reports to the institutions, and based on numerous reports, the CEC imposed penalties on political entities under its jurisdiction.

That is why TI BIH calls on citizens to report all cases of irregularities, which includes buying votes and offering public services in exchange for votes, manipulation of voter lists and election engineering, threats to voters, misuse of public funds for party promotion, paid advertising before the start of the election campaign and all other election irregularities.

TI BIH has also developed the free application “Reflektor: Elections 22” for easier registration, with which citizens can quickly, easily and

anonymously report all irregularities and abuses during the election process. The application is adapted for all Android and Apple smart devices, it can be downloaded from this link as well as from the website reflektor.ba.

TI BiH hereby appeals to all participants in the election process to adhere to the rules and laws that define the behavior of political subjects in the period from the day of the announcement to the holding of the election itself, in order to enable the elections to be held in a just and fair atmosphere.

Monitoring of pre-election activities is carried out by TI BiH within the framework of the project “Support to citizens in the fight against corruption”, which is financially supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which is carried out together with partner organizations, the Centers for Civil Initiatives (CCI) and the Center for Media Development and Analysis (CRMA).

Press rls_07.07.22_