Headlines
- According to OSCE Information 70% of Total Electorate Voted in BiH
- Just Before Release of Preliminary Results, Some of Strongest RS Parties Self-Confidently Announce Electoral Victory
- Tanks in Streets of Tirana, State Television and Government’s Main Office Under Control of Opposition
A press conference of the International Electoral Monitoring Commission was held in Sarajevo to inform the press about the joint report of the European Parliament, OSCE and the Council of Europe on the electoral process in BiH. There was a delay in opening 55 polling stations due to late delivery of voters’ lists which further caused long queues and impatience among the voters. “We cannot understand and accept the answer that this was caused by a computer mistake” said Hanna Stevanensen, Head of the delegation from the Council of Europe, and she added that this kind of thing cannot and will not be repeated in the future.
00:58
The OSCE held press conferences in Banja Luka and Sarajevo today and informed the press that preliminary electoral results will be released tomorrow, while the final results will be released in 7 to 10 days. The stated 70%) of the total electorate voted in the general elections in BiH, while 75% of voters voted in the RS. The press was informed that the information on electoral results released by some political parties is not accurate as it does not include votes from abroad, absentee votes, unverified ballots and votes from the FRY.
00:41
More than 10,000 ballots from abroad arrived in the Counting Centre in Lukavica. Liam Barny, the Head of the Centre, said that ballots designated for the BiH Federation are being delivered to Rajlovac, where further processing will continue. He said that he hoped the ballots would be counted by the end of this week.
00:36
According to unofficial information, more than 40% of refugees voted in the FRY and the ballots were delivered early this morning to Lukavica Centre. Although there were complaints in several places from voters about the use of a pencil instead of a pen, as well as from refugees who were voting for the authorities in the BiH Federation and whose ballots were immediately placed in envelopes with the names and last names of the voters, thus violating the right for secret voting, the Electoral Commission did not receive even one written complaint or an appeal.
00:45
Although results of voting are not final, it was found after the first counting of ballots in the area of Trebinje that there was an extremely high percentage (5%-10%)of invalid ballots, which was, according to some members of the LECs, even 10 times larger than at the last year’s elections and was caused by complicated ballots and unresourceful voters.
00:30
Members of the “Sloga” Coalition Electoral HQ informed the press today that the candidates of the Coalition for the RS President and the BiH presidency are in the lead in about 15 municipalities of the RS. Dragoslav Trivanovis said that technical problems prevented about 35,000 voters from voting on time, while Stanislav Cadjo added that it is too early to speak about final results.
00:28
The Coalition of the SDS and the SRS expressed displeasure about the Dracon measures of the EASC in the case of violation of some electoral rules and regulations for which the parties cannot be held responsible, like for example displaying of posters at polling stations. The Coalition will request the ballots arriving in Lukavica Centreto be counted by hand, rather than by a computer, in order to avoid any mistakes.
00:38
Representatives of the SRS, Ognjen Tadic, Mirjana Sajinovic and Pantelija Damjanovic, informed the press that the SRS won the majority of votes at all the levels of authority, as their electoral HQ had so far processed 93% of results from polling stations. They emphasised that they still do not have proper information on the votes from abroad and FRY. In the event of forgery of the ballots the SRS will not recognise the elections. According to Tadic, 20% of voters did not vote due to non-arrival, invalid ballots or because their names were not on the voters’ lists.
00:48
Yesterday’s apprehension of a BiH TV crew by the members of the RS MUP, in front of the Banski Dvor (Presidency Building) in Banja Luka, caused different reactions in the RS and the BiH Federation. The RS MUP issued a press release stating that security staff at the building noticed filming of security and the entrance of the building. The security employees identified the persons in the TV crew, who stated that they came to make TV reportage from Misin Han in Banja Luka, as they expected a large number of Croats to come to vote at that polling station. After a warning that the mentioned part of the presidential building could not be on the tape, the members of the crew themselves suggested that the recorded part be erased. The release denies that the persons were taken in for interrogation.
00:55