Vanja Bjelica-Prutina, a member of the BiH Central Election Commission (CEC), said at the CEC session Tuesday that her safety is threatened, and that she is being targeted because of the decision to re-count the ballots for the level of President/Vice President of Bosnia’s Republika Srpska (RS) entity. She stated that she fears for her child's and her own life and that she is being called a 'Serb scumbag' and a person who is 'destroying the RS'. 

“Irena Hadziabdic and I were discriminated against on the basis of gender and on several occasions we suffered various forms of verbal abuse. The tones in which they spoke to us were terrifying. I am visibly disturbed by the fact that a candidate for the President of the RS is talking about me personally again, this time as someone ‘who is destroying the RS’. The reason for this is that I supported the decision to re-check the count for the level of President/Vice President of the RS,” said Bjelica. 

She claims that this is not the first time she has been exposed to a media lynching and that she was exposed in the same way after the previous elections when she was called a “Serb scumbag” due to the annulment of the elections in Doboj and Srebrenica. 

The CEC BiH member also said that today [Tuesday] she received information that due to the repeat voting for the level of the RS, it was said that she had ‘perpetrated an attack on the RS’, although it is clear that the CEC makes decisions by a two-thirds majority vote. 

“I live in the RS and that creates a hostile environment for me among those people who receive gifts and trust the words of that candidate. I’m afraid when my child comes home from school with his friends… I believe that my child should enjoy the same rights as other children, but I’m afraid to allow him that freedom,” Bjelica – Prutina said. 

Dodik's attack on CEC members

Milorad Dodik, the leader of the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) attacked the members of the CEC on Tuesday on a personal level. 

“Bjelica – Prutina met with [Serb Democratic Party – SDS, Mirko] Sarovic during critical days where she received instructions. And the President of the CEC [Suad Arnaut] is anti-Serb, he’s doing everything against the RS, and he believes that it [the RS] is genocidal and will do everything to harm it,” Dodik said in a series of controversial statements.