Press Releases

Sarajevo, May 25, 2022 – The Central Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina will not participate in the process of violating the law by those who neglect the legal deadline referred to in Article 1.2a of the BiH Election Law on mandatory provision of funds for elections within fifteen days from the day elections were announced, which expired on May 19, 2022.

  By failing to make a decision on securing funds for the elections, the competent institutions have set an unprecedented precedent in the performance of their legal obligations, which could result in the inability to exercise the right to vote, both active voting rights for about 3.3 million voters and disabling candidacy rights for thousands of citizens. Individuals from the institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina want to either cease the electoral process, which began on May 4, 2022, or to make it meaningless by not fulfilling their obligations within the legal deadlines.

They are violating the Constitution of BiH (Article I/2) by their illegal actions or lack of any action directed towards suspending electoral process. This Article states that Bosnia and Herzegovina is a democratic state that functions in accordance with the law and based on free and democratic elections. This is the decision of those who, by their actions or lack thereof or in any other unlawful way, seem to want to decisively influence every voter in Bosnia and Herzegovina not to vote at all in the elections on October 2, 2022.

Anyone who chooses to violate the law should do so to his own detriment, and not to the detriment of voters and the electoral process whose direct beneficiaries are political parties, independent candidates and voters, i.e. all citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina with the right to vote.

Completely irresponsible statements such as "there is time", "there will be money for elections", etc., are messages given as anesthesia to the patient, in order to stun and lull the Central Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina as the most responsible operational body for conduct of elections in the country. Such statements, in addition to being illegal after May 19, also aim to deliberately direct this independent state commission into a dead end and thus block it and move it away from its commitment to preparing elections and enforcing statutory mandatory deadlines, which include urgent, legally prescribed, deadlines set in hours and days. Instead of empty words, it is necessary to immediately provide funds for the conduct of elections.

We all must respect the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the laws of this state. No one is above the Constitution and the law!