The Central Election Commission (CEC) is facing an unprecedented issue in the central Bosnian town of Travnik and it is unclear how it will be resolved: the candidate who seems to have won the race for mayor in the Sunday local election died on election day.

The candidate from the main Bosniak Party in the country, the Party of Democratic Action (SDA), Dr. Mirsad Peco, passed away due to COVID-19 at the hospital in Travnik while voters were casting their ballots. The final election results have not yet been published but preliminary results show that Peco received most of the votes.

According to unofficial information, he received a lot more votes than the next candidate in line, the candidate of the Croat Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina (HDZ BiH), Goran Pejakovic.

It remains unclear who the mayor will be. According to the SDA, the Central Election Commission should adopt a decision to repeat the election in Travnik.

“I think this is the only right solution, given that the election process is underway and one of the candidates has died. We would request the same thing no matter which party the candidate would belong to,” said the president of the Committee of the SDA in the Central Bosnia Canton (SBK), Asim Mekic.

The leader of the party, Bakir Izetbegovic, also expressed this stance, adding that he thinks the election in the town will be repeated.

But according to Marinko Cavara, the President of Bosnia’s Federation (FBiH) entity and member of the HDZ BiH, “there is no basis in law for the elections in Travnik to be repeated, that is only the wish of the SDA.”

“It’s the same as if an elected assembly member would die, he would be replaced by the next one in line in terms of the number of votes,” Cavara told the Centralna.ba web portal.

In a note to CEC President Zeljko Bakalar, CEC member Suad Arnautovic wrote that it is unquestionable that Peco would have been elected in Travnik.

“In such a legal and factual situation, it is necessary that the CEC BiH to annuls the elections in the Travnik electoral unit due to obvious irregularities and acts according to Article 1.2b of the Election Law of Bosnia and Herzegovina and schedules new elections,” Arnautovic wrote.