There have been numerous irregularities that could compromise the integrity of the elections that took place in the southern Bosnian city of Mostar on Sunday, the leader of the main Croat ethnic party in the country, Dragan Covic, wrote in a letter to international officials in Bosnia, urging them to react.
Covic, who is the leader of the Croat Democratic Union in Bosnia (HDZ BiH), addressed the letter to the Head of the European Union Delegation to BiH, Johann Sattler, the US Ambassador in the country, Eric Nelson, Bosnia’s international administrator, High Representative Valentin Inzko, as well as the Head of the OSCE Mission in the country, Kathleen Kavalec.
“Yesterday, the citizens of Mostar participated in a historic day when, after 12 years, they had the opportunity to express their free will and democratically elect their city government. Your contribution in this regard is highly appreciated, as well as a proven commitment to doing everything in your power to ensure that the elections in Mostar are conducted in a fair and just way, in accordance with European standards and good practices,” Covid wrote.
“Your statements and presence in Mostar on election day are a great encouragement and incentive towards that, and that is why it is my duty to share with you the latest knowledge regarding the threats to the integrity of the election process in Mostar,” he added.
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Referring to a previous letter he sent the officials, Covic said that he has been warning about fears that the election results could be compromised, both during the election process itself and the process of counting the votes after polling stations are closed.
Those fears were justified, the HDZ BiH leader wrote.
According to him, ethnic Croats in Mostar have taken to the polls on Sunday in great numbers and he expects that his party received at least 20,000 votes.
The election process went by smoothly, with only minor irregularities, until 5 pm, Covic wrote.
“However, after 5:00 pm, there was a breakdown of the system and a change of the expressed will of the voters, which is happening at this moment as I address you with this letter,” he wrote.
Covic expressed suspicion regarding the work of the Central Election Commission (CEC), asking how come that the institution managed to count only a small number of the 52,865 votes in total by midnight and arguing that such “unjustified delays cast doubt on the regularity of the counting process.” The votes were counted throughout the night and less than 50 percent of them were processed by the morning, he wrote.
Covic also noted that, at a number of polling stations, a considerable difference was observed between the figures communicated during the evening in the presence of observers and the figures officially recorded and available on the website www.izbori.ba.
He argued that there was an “unusual jump in turnout” in the final two hours of voting in the city’s constituencies North and Southeast.
“There are grounds for suspicion that the votes won by Croat parties were, with illegal coordination with authorized persons from the Central Election Commission, criminally transferred in order to gain seats in the majority Croatian constituencies,” Covic alleged.
He also noted that he had warned about “fictitious voter registration” which could change the results in the constituency South, due to which the Croat National Assembly (HNS), an organisation made up of Bosnian Croat parties, has submitted a criminal complaint.
Covic noted that “the number of mandates is assigned to city areas in accordance with the corresponding number of voters in city urban area, ie. constituency” and that there was an “organized transfer of voters” from one constituency to another on the scene, calling it “a mockery of the agreement for Mostar and electoral engineering.”
“In every segment of the election process, from the voting to the counting and verification of election results, the process must be protected and Mostar must not be an exception in this regard. What we have knowledge of and evidence for threatens to jeopardize and delegitimize everything we have achieved in the past period,” he wrote.
“We, therefore, demand the urgent involvement of the international community and you, as our friends, in order to thwart illegalities, save the rule of law and the integrity of the electoral process while it is still possible to do so without irreparable consequences, and to strongly condemn all attempts to manipulate elections and the votes of voters,” he wrote.
“We request a reaction from you because we must not allow for those who count votes to determine the results of the election,” he concluded.
