P R E S S   R E L E A S E

For immediate release : 15 September, 1997

Deals compromise municipal elections in Bosnia; require explanation

 
SARAJEVO: The International Crisis Group - a private, multinational body monitoring the implementation of the Dayton Peace Agreement - is calling into question the legitimacy and credibility of this weekends municipal elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In a statement released today, one day after the elections, ICG warns that: "Deals struck in smoke-filled rooms to save this weekend's poll may have compromised the integrity of Bosnia's first post-war municipal elections.

"ICG is therefore demanding that the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) - the body responsible for supervising the elections - publish full details of all concessions made to the ruling nationalist parties to secure their participation in the elections."

In particular, ICG is concerned by:

• the OSCE's failure to dispel confusion over the total number of people entitled to vote in Brcko - following earlier evidence of fraudulent registration applications and the last-minute discovery of an "error" in OSCE calculations of the size of the local electorate;

• the OSCE's decision, on the eve of the elections, to permit disputed ballots cast in Brcko to be counted locally rather than in Sarajevo as previously agreed;

• the OSCE's decision, on the first day of voting, to cave in to pressure from the hard-line SDS leadership in Pale to reinstate two leading SDS candidates previously disqualified for fraud;

• the flagrant promotion of indicted war criminal Radovan Karadzic in SDS election propaganda and posters - a clear violation of election rules laid down by the OSCE; and

• evidence that, in areas where the results were most closely contested, local election commissions deliberately slowed down polling in a bid to discourage exiled voters from voting.

"Unless the OSCE can provide a full and transparent explanation, in response to each of these concerns, elections must be considered flawed," the ICG statement says.

See full statement...

For further information contact ICG Sarajevo on +38-7-71-447-845, ICG Brussels on +322-502-9038 or send e-mail here