Bosnian Election Commission Scraps Poll Results in Srebrenica, Doboj

After complaints about the regularity of the November local election results, Bosnia's Central Election Commission, CIK, on Thursday annulled the results of the vote in most polling stations in Srebrenica, in eastern Bosnia, and in Doboj, in northern Bosnia. As a result, elections in the two towns will have to be staged again.

Experts identified various irregularities in terms of voter signatures, indicating forgery. Voting with invalid ID documents or using documents issued outside the legal deadline was also determined.

Both towns lie in the Serb-domionated entity, Republika Srpska, RS, one of two entities in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In both towns, coalition candidates gathered around Bosnian Serb strongman Milorad Dodik's Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, SNSD, won the mid-November elections. Complaints about the results followed immediately after the polls closed.

The ruling coalition in the RS, led by the SNSD, condemned the CIK's decision to revisit the results and also claims the current members of the CIK were illegally elected and that the institution is, therefore, illegitimate.

Some CIK members say they came under strong pressure not to investigate wrongdoing. "I am exposed to the fiercest pressures because I supported the conclusion of the investigation of irregularities in these two constituencies," CIK member Vanja Bjelica Prutina told the CIK session on Wednesday.

"Whether under pressure or not, I will act within the law as long as I sit here. I will not provide an alibi to anyone who has violated the provisions of the law," she added.

But Vlado Rogic, the only CIK member who voted against the decision to annul the election result, said the CIK had succumbed to pressure from some...

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