A local election watchdog urged on Saturday the Central Election Commission (CIK) to publish a list of voters registered for voting from abroad over concerns of possible abuse of personal data for potential election fraud.

The Coalition ‘Pod Lupom’ made the plea in an extraordinary press release in which it also urged citizens to check where they are registered.

The general election in Bosnia will take place on October 7.  

Pod Lupom also said that they have, in May and June, come across several fake prize contests presented as coming from big retail chains in the country, which asked citizens to provide copies of both sides of their ID as a condition for competing. Such operations are believed to be connected to potential election fraud.

The head of Pod Lupom, Dario Jovanovic, said his organisation is calling upon election officials to publish the list of names, electoral areas they are voting for and countries they are voting from “as soon as possible,” while protecting the personal data of the citizens.  

The watchdog said citizens should make sure they check where they have a registered place of residence on the CIK website, and that they can report any abuse of their personal data to the organisation and to the CIK.  

More than 77,000 voters are registered as voting by mail in the upcoming election, which is the highest number yet.  

The organisation also said that there were numerous cases of political party activists pressuring Bosnian citizens in neighbouring Serbia to vote by mail, cases where students in the Serbian town of Novi Sad were offered money in exchange for providing their personal data and reports of someone registering to vote by mail instead of them.

Additionally, the organisation reported that massive party campaigns urging Bosnians living abroad to vote by mail have been conducted in foreign countries. 

The CIK has already rejected 9,000 submissions for voting by mail due to numerous reasons.

Some citizens were even sent fake ballots for certain levels of government early, Pod Lupom said.  

“All this implies that there are intentional manipulations aimed at influencing the election results. Those who have an interest in something like this are only the political actors registered as running in the election, and those who ordered such operations and conducted these crimes should be sought among them,” head of the Pod Lupom Strategy Board, Vehid Sehic, said.

The organisation also reminded all Bosnians that they can report any irregularities ahead of the election or on election day with a free call to their number, + 387 (0) 80 05 05 05 or on the www.podlupom.org website.