TI BiH: Numerous examples of misuse of public resources for campaigning

Transparency International in Bosnia and Herzegovina (TI BiH) presented the first results of the monitoring of pre-election activities conducted in 68 local communities in BiH. In the past month, numerous forms of misuse of public resources for political promotion have been noticed, and some parties and candidates have already started with paid advertising, although this is explicitly prohibited outside the period of the official election campaign.

Sarajevo 9/17/2020 – Transparency International in Bosnia and Herzegovina (TI BiH) presented the first results of the monitoring of pre-election activities conducted in 68 local communities in BiH. In the past month, numerous forms of misuse of public resources for political promotion have been noticed, and some parties and candidates have already started with paid advertising, although this is explicitly prohibited outside the period of the official election campaign.

Due to all this, TI BiH in 20 cases forwarded to the Central Election Commission of BiH information that is mostly related to the premature campaign, and eight cases of advertising in places that are not provided for that were recorded. In addition to promotional billboards outside the election campaign, the example of the billboard of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) set up in the yard of the primary school in Busovača stands out, which is why the Ombudsman .

In the past month, 70 TI BiH observers covered 263 public events organized by public institutions, public institutions and companies, of which 62 related to the opening of infrastructure facilities. About 70% was used to promote candidates in local elections, many of whom have no public office and it is unclear in what capacity they attended. Messages against political opponents were presented at 11 events, pre-election promises were made in 78 speeches, while party symbols were highlighted at 25 public events. All these data clearly show that public events, organized by institutions and public funds, are mostly used to promote parties and candidates in local elections. One of such cases is the example of the opening of works on the water supply network “Water for 12,000 inhabitants” in Visoko, where the participants were given protective masks with the features of the Independent List.

Also, there were eight examples of paid advertising of public institutions in which candidates are promoted in local elections. We single out the example of the campaign “Banja Luka is being built” where pre-election promises are given through videos, billboards and 3D presentations and personal promotion of the current Mayor of Banja Luka, who is again a candidate for that position. TI BiH sent a request to the City to provide information on how much this campaign cost, but it has not been submitted yet.

There were also 17 examples of mass employment of workers in public institutions and companies. Observers also noted 50 cases of distribution of various types of subsidies and assistance from public budgets during this period. The example of Bileća stands out, where the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management of the Republika Srpska organized the distribution of pregnant heifers in front of a dairy owned by the candidate for mayor of the municipality. which co-finance the transportation of students. In 14 cases, free check-ups, medicines and other types of public services were used to promote candidates in the elections. In the observed period, 128 examples of intensification of public works were recorded, which primarily refers to the beginning of the construction of various infrastructure facilities.

TI BiH has been monitoring pre-election activities for years, and the goal is to document all types of misuse of public resources for political promotion, as well as to detect illicit revenues of political parties. In the coming days, TI BiH will launch the mobile application Reflektor , which will enable all citizens to anonymously send reports on examples of vote buying, pre-election employment, advertising in prohibited places, providing public services in exchange for votes and all other types of misuse of public funds. process.

The mentioned activities of TI BiH are implemented within the project “Support to Citizens in the Fight against Corruption” in cooperation with partner organizations Centers for Civil Initiatives (CCI) and the Center for Media Development and Analysis (CRMA). Financial support for the project was provided by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Press rls 17.09.2020