Election watchdog declares Bosnia's 2018 election partly regular

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Bosnia's 2018 general election were not regular due to numerous frauds and political influence, representatives of the local election watchdog 'Pod lupom' said on Thursday.

Addressing a conference on future of election process in the country, activist Vehid Sehic said it was questionable if the last election mirrored the will of citizens at all.

“That's why we, acting as ‘Pod lupom’ coalition, declared the last election partly regular. We witnessed disgraceful stance of people in the election cycle, but they did all that at order of their political mentors,” Sehic stressed.

Coalition director, Dario Jovanovic, noted that the 2018 election cycle recorded a huge number of election frauds, while the legal framework is incomplete and political influence on electoral administration is obvious.

“Lack of sanctions for any breach of the election cycle and electoral frauds have brought ‘Pod lupom’ coalition in a situation to declare the election as partly irregular,”, said Jovanovic.

Zlatan Begic, a representative in the State Parliament, also addressed the conference noting that this event opens crucial issues of electoral legislation in Bosnia.

Being a part of the political system is not simple in this country, according to him.

“If you access this job responsibly then it is really not easy. It is even very hard. There are situations where you have to meet the people whom you would rather not even greet but people select your partners in politics,” said Begic.