TI BIH PRESENTED A REPORT: SIGNIFICANT INCREASE IN PUBLIC SPENDING BEFORE THE ELECTIONS, AMENDMENTS TO THE ELECTION LAW DID NOT PREVENT ABUSE OF PUBLIC RESOURCES

Sarajevo, August 7, 2024: In the last month, Transparency International in Bosnia and Herzegovina submitted 50 reports to the competent institutions due to irregularities in the pre-election period, which mostly relate to misuse of public resources and premature campaigning. Based on reports from TI BiH, 11 sanctions in the amount of BAM 43,000 have been imposed on parties and candidates so far, but they mostly relate to the early campaign. On the other hand, the timing and opening of public works before the elections and the distribution of one-time financial aid to citizens are still the dominant form of behavior of public officials in the pre-election period, and the changes to the electoral law imposed by the OHR, which were supposed to prevent the abuse of public resources in practice, until now they did not give results.

By the TI BiH data all levels of government distributed over 29 million BAM to different categories of population in the past month through one-time aid. On the other hand, TI BIH published an interactive map where locating 350 examples of pre-election works that started or ended in the past month, the value of which is 139 million BAM. However, the Central Election Commission (CEC) has so far imposed only two sanctions for the abuse of public resources, related to the illegal use of means of communication, while no one has been sanctioned under the provision that prohibits the indirect purchase of votes through one-time monetary or non-monetary aid to citizens.

The reason is that the CEC considers all payments from the budget, which the authorities claim are planned because they were paid from budget, as “regular subsidies” and sees nothing objectionable in that, regardless of the fact that they are not regular monthly or annual payments, but one-time payments, usually from 50 or 100 BAM timed before the elections. Because of this, numerous applications of TI BIH for abuse of public resources were rejected, even though the CEC was provided with clear evidence that these were benefits that were timed before elections and were not paid earlier on a regular basis, said Ivana Korajlić, executive director of TI BIH.

TI BiH has already pointed to numerous examples where the payment of one-time aid to social categories in Nevesinje and East Novi Sarajevo, the organization of a free excursion for pensioners by the mayor of Sarajevo, and the distribution of cards for free public transportation to pensioners by the mayor of Banja Luka, are not considered misuse of public resources. In cases where parties promoted themselves on social networks through infrastructure projects and social benefits, sanctions were imposed against SDA, Nasa stranka, SDP and SNSD, but only for early campaigning, while it is difficult to expect, with this kind of practice, that someone will be sanctioned for the misuse of resources.

A decision is still awaited on the application against the mayor of Lukavac, who before these elections for the first time introduced one-time aid for veterans of BAM 100, while Ljubuski and Tomislavgrad introduced one-time benefits for students of BAM 200 each. In addition, the practice of official campaign continued, and of the 161 events of public institutions or institutions monitored by TI BiH observers, over 73% were attended by candidates for local elections, while at 16% of events political messages were presented, which is prohibited by law. We highlight the example of a concert organized for the Čelinac municipality day, where the SNSD candidates for the mayor of Banja Luka and the party’s list bearer addressed the gathered citizens, and a report was sent to the CEC due to the political messages they expressed.

18 examples of abuse of children for political purposes were also recorded, and in one of the decisions of the CEC, the application of TI BiH against the SNSD in Prnjavor was rejected with the claim that the materials distributed in the premises of the association of children with special needs did not contain party symbols, although clearly visible in the photos.

Also, 12 examples of paid advertising by institutions promoting candidates and the use of communication tools for the election campaign were recorded. In addition, TI BiH recorded 21 examples of providing special benefits to citizens, mostly related to free public services, examinations, concerts, trips and the like. Based on the TI BiH application, the CEC imposed a sanction against the Ujedinjena Srpska because the councilor of this party organized an action of free screenings with the political party’s logo displayed.

Two cases were reported to the Communication Regulatory Agency and the Press Council due to the publication of pre-election polls that do not contain relevant data, as well as the creation of street polls by the media, presented as a representative opinion of voters about the candidates, which is prohibited by law.

TI BiH has been pointing out for a long time that the misuse of public resources gives an inappropriate advantage to certain candidates in the elections, but for years the authorities have not had the ear to adequately sanction this phenomenon through changes in the legal regulations. The latest changes imposed by the High Representative introduced new provisions concerning the behavior of parties and officials in the pre-election period and the misuse of public resources, but due to different interpretations of the provisions themselves and the unwillingness to sanction these phenomena, the misuse of resources still remains a dominant feature of the campaign.

TI BIH invites citizens to get involved and report cases of violations of the electoral law or abuse of public resources in the campaign through the Reflektor application.