The following report is the most comprehensive independent assessment of the elections in Bosnia-Herzegovina released to date. It follows on from ICG's earlier reports which advocated the postponement of the elections until the conditions for a free and fair vote were in place. ICG shall continue reporting on the implementation of the Dayton Accords into their second year, looking at the results of the recent vote and all its ramifications.

In order to facilitate easy access to this report, and to minimise downloading times, we have divided the text into three files which are accessible via the hyperlinks below. If you wish to save the entire report for later viewing or printing, use your browser's "Save As" command to store parts 1,2 & 3 separately. Each part of the report has a file size greater than 40Kb, so it may take a few minutes to view the text if you have a slow connection.

Full, bound copies of this report are available from ICG's London office, which can be contacted by e-mail here.

CONTENTS

• INTRODUCTION

• BACKGROUND
  
  
  • General
    • Bosnia and Herzegovina in Yugoslavia
    • Bosnian Election of 1990
    • War and Demographic Changes
  
  
  • Dayton Peace Agreement and Elections
    • The Dayton Peace Agreement and the OSCE
    • Criteria for Free and Fair Elections
    • OSCE�s Supervisory and Monitoring Bodies
      • Provisional Election Commission
      • Election Appeals Sub-Commission
      • Media Experts Commission
      • OSCE Election Supervisors
      • Co-ordinator for International Monitoring
    • Certification of the Conduct and Results of the Elections
      • Pre-Election Certification
      • Post-Election Certification

• THE LEAD-UP TO ELECTIONS
  • OSCE�s Decision to Proceed with the Elections
    • Decision to Proceed
    • Response to Arguments for Proceeding with the Elections
    
    
  • Consequences of the 25 June Certification of Conditions for Elections
    • Decrease of OSCE�s Credibility and Leverage
    • Deterioration of Conditions
      • Repatriation
      • War Criminals Act with Impunity
      • Absence of Politically Neutral Environment
      • Freedom of Movement
    
    
  • Campaign
    • OSCE�s Start-Up Problems
    • Electoral Campaign
      • War criminals
      • Intimidation
      • Media War - Absence of Freedom of Expression
    
    
  • Disenfranchisement of Refugees

  • Electoral Engineering
    • In-Country Voter Registration
    • Voter Registration Abroad
    
    
  • OSCE�s Responses
    • Election Appeals Sub-Commission
    • Media Experts Commission

• ELECTION DAY
  • Introduction

  • General Voting Problems
    • Voter Registration
    • Absentee Stations
    • Other Problems

  • Displaced Persons Voting

  • Refugee Voting: Massive Electoral Engineering
    • Out-of-Country Polling Stations
    • Refugees Coming to Vote from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia

• VOTE COUNT AND RESULTS
  • Preliminary Results

  • Vote Count Discrepancies

• CERTIFICATION OF THE ELECTIONS

• CONCLUSIONS