Bosnia’s State institutions must react urgently to the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe's (OSCE) alarming report on pressures, blackmails and intimidation of voters during the October general election in Bosnia, the State Foreign Minister, Igor Crnadak, said.

“Their report gives a clear picture of the extent to which fundemental freedoms and other important standards like equality and transparency are respected,” Crnadak said. “I’d also like to point to countless EU documents stressing that they use these reports to assess the level of development of democracy and human rights in all countries, and see if citizens can vote freely and without pressures.”

He recalled that his Ministry sent the said report to all the competent state institutions, as a critical document regarding the promotion and assessment of democracy, rule of law and tolerance.

“This unbiased institution concluded that people’s right to an opinion and to vote for their representatives was threatened. The report is alarming, and it also says that public televisions were misused for the promotion of some political parties,” the Minister said.

If there is no reaction from Bosnian institutions or the EU to change this situation, then there will be no democracy, or fundamental human rights and freedoms in the country and all future elections will become pointless.

Therefore, he added that the Ministry sent the report to all the competent State and EU institutions as an appeal to change something, adding that Bosnia’s European partners should not turn a blind eye to the threats to fundamental human rights in Bosnia.