Srebrenica Votes Recounted as Bosniaks Seek Annulment

As a vote recount for the disputed mayoralty of Srebrenica began on Monday in Sarajevo, the Bosniak-led Party of Democratic Action, SDA called for a complete annulment of the local polls in the wartime flashpoint town.

According to the SDA, which is led by the Bosniak member of the country's tripartite presidency, Bakir Izetbegovic, the legality of the vote was violated when police special forces from Republika Srpska entered the municipality election commission's headquarters last Tuesday.

"Members of the SDA are seeking to nullify the elections in Srebrenica, because [the RS Ministy of Security's intervention] grossly undermined the integrity of the electoral process," said the SDA in a statement.

According to the statement, the interference constituted a violation of Bosnia's electoral code, which stipulates that the Municipal Election Commission is responsible for collecting and processing results.

The head of Srebrenica's municipal elections commission Nermin Alivukovic told BIRN last Wednesday that his team was in limbo, unable to open bags of uncounted votes after the police entered the HQ to seize control.

The Central Election Commission then opted to bring the ballots from five polling stations back to Sarajevo for a closely-observed count.

The bags of votes were moved from Srebrenica to a warehouse in East Sarajevo on Saturday for counting to begin on Monday.

The police intervention came after supporters of the two main mayoral candidates in Srebrenica, current Bosniak mayor Camil Durakovic and Serb-backed newcomer Mladen Grujicic, cried foul play.

A dispute had erupted over bags of election materials found in rubbish bags, but these turned out not to be lost ballots, but pens and other incidental items.<...