The Central Election Commission (CEC) of Bosnia and Herzegovina said on Wednesday that there was a conscious effort to obstruct elections set for 2 October, which was why the adoption of a decision on their financing was being delayed.

After the House of Peoples of the BiH Parliament earlier this week refused, owing to votes by deputies of Milorad Dodik's SNSD party and the Croat HDZ BiH party, to pass a decision obliging the country's government to secure €6.5 million to finance the elections, CEC issued a statement saying that “action or lack thereof or other illegal ways” were being used in an evident attempt to exert critical influence on every BiH voter.

CEC earlier said that €6.5 million had to be secured to implement the elections, and since no budget for 2022 has been adopted due to obstruction by Serb deputies in the state-level parliament and government, it proposed that the funding be secured from alternative sources, namely, from the budget surplus accumulated in recent years.

The BiH Finance Ministry, headed by Vjekoslav Bevanda of the HDZ BiH party, described the proposal as illegal and ministers from the HDZ BiH sitting on the government refused to discuss it.

Prime Minister Zoran Tegeltija said after that that there was no reason for alarm and that money for elections would be made available on time.

Statements such as the one that there is time and that there will be money for elections are completely irresponsible, CEC, the main operational body in charge of implementing elections, said in the statement.

“Such statements, in addition to being unlawful after 19 May, are aimed at… preventing this independent state commission from carrying out preparations for the elections and complying with the strictly prescribed deadlines… Instead of empty talk, one should immediately secure funds for the implementation of the elections,” CEC said.

The international community strongly supports the implementation of elections in BiH on 2 October and insists that BiH authorities secure funds for that purpose.