NiP leader: Election process is completely compromised

N1

The election process is “completely compromised” and an investigation into election irregularities must be initiated, the leader of the newly established People and Justice (NiP) party told N1 on Friday.

NiP leader Elmedin Konakovic used to be the Prime Minister of the Sarajevo Canton until he split from the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) and started his own political party in March.

According to the preliminary results of the Sunday general election, the SDA won the most votes in Sarajevo’s municipalities, with NiP winning the second most.

NiP on Friday however filed criminal complaints regarding potential election fraud, specifically regarding irregularities in the work the municipal election commissions and polling station committees have been doing, which Konakovic suspects is in violation of the Election Law.

“Our observers are sitting in front of the municipal building in shifts. There is suspicion that ballot boxes had been taken in and out of the voting stations. All of that will be prosecuted,” Konakovic said.

He added that NiP’s election observers had been removed from voting stations and that there were many irregularities when the votes were being counted.

He said that “it is not logical that some 500 empty ballots emerged (…) This implies that this electoral process is completely compromised.”

The presidents and members of municipal election commissions in Sarajevo were dominantly filled with members of the SDA, he said, alleging that this party is behind many of those irregularities in the capital.

Konakovic dismissed any possibility of his party entering a coalition with the SDA in the future.

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