Three months ago, Mladen Grujicic, incumbent mayor of Srebrenica, tasked some people to provide him with 300 Bosniak votes for the November 15 local elections, which would secure him the victory, his opponent Alija Tabakovic told N1 on Thursday, adding that recent arrests in this east-Bosnian town speak in favour of his claims.
“Three months ago, we had a hint that there would be some kind of abuse. During a drinking party, Grujicic instructed some people to provide him with 300 Bosniak votes in Srebrenica and that he will definitely win this election. One of the apprehended people told people that he needed 300 copies of ID cards so he could run as an independent candidate. So, those were the 300 ID cards and these three worked in cooperation with Grujicic,” Tabakovic said.
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Following the victory of incumbent Mladen Grujicic, a joint candidate of major Serb parties over Alija Tabakovic, a joint candidate of all pro-Bosnian parties, rumours appeared of a major election fraud in which unsuspecting residents of Bosnia and Herzegovina were registered to vote from Serbia.
Several Srebrenica Bosniak organizations claimed to allegedly have evidence of people from Serbia arriving in busses to vote for the Serb candidate Mladen Grujicic.
Tabakovic said that from the beginning, they warned about possible election engineering and irregularities and that they submitted all the evidence to the Central Election Commission (CIK). He said they are now awaiting findings and an investigation, which will prove whether their reports are justified or not.
“Considering the operation of the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA), I believe that the CIK will determine that there were irregularities and make a valid decision to annul the elections. Whoever wins most votes will be the winner, but the elections must be fair,” Tabakovic told N1.
According to him, Srebrenica Bosniaks have no problem voting for a Serb or Croat candidate, which they proved on countless occasions.
