Children in Campaign: BiH Fines SNSD, Stanivukovic Pays Most
Bosnia's Central Election Commission handed out 18,500 marks in fines ahead of the October vote: SNSD over Dodik's posts and the use of children, Drasko Stanivukovic's coalition over a TV appearance.
The Central Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina published rulings on August 6 from its 47th correspondence session, fining SNSD, Drasko Stanivukovic’s coalition and the Social Democratic Party of BiH a combined 18,500 marks. Two months before the general election set for October 4, the commission’s ruling against Milorad Dodik’s party found not only premature campaigning but also the use of children for political purposes, the first such finding of this election cycle.
The story is not a distant one for Serbia. This autumn, Republika Srpska will measure the balance of power between SNSD and the bloc gathered around the mayor of Banja Luka, and both sides now enter the campaign with a recorded violation of the Election Law on the books. The convertible mark is pegged to the euro at a fixed rate of 1.95583, so the fines from this session add up to roughly 9,460 euros. The sum is not large for party budgets, but the timing matters: the official campaign has not yet started, and the commission is already keeping a list of those who got going early.
Stanivukovic’s coalition hit with the biggest fine
The coalition Pokret Sigurna Srpska (Safe Srpska Movement), led by Drasko Stanivukovic, was fined in two separate cases, totaling 8,500 marks. That is the highest single amount from this session:
- 3,500 marks over Natasa Miljanovic Zubac’s appearance on BN television, ruled a premature election campaign
- 5,000 marks over remarks by party president Stanivukovic, where alongside premature campaigning the commission also found misuse of public funds for unauthorized purposes
- part of the case was forwarded to the Communications Regulatory Agency of Bosnia and Herzegovina for further action
Referring part of the case to the regulator means this does not end with a payment, since the agency deals with broadcasters, not parties. The television appearance is thus an open question on two fronts: for the political figure who spoke, and for the station that gave him airtime.
Why was SNSD fined 6,000 marks?
The commission found that SNSD president Milorad Dodik ran a premature election campaign through Facebook, and the same ruling charged him with misusing children for political purposes. The fine comes to 6,000 marks. The commission treats content posted to social media the same as any other campaign appearance, while the presence of minors in that material is a separate item, added on top of the underlying violation.
A third ruling hit the Social Democratic Party of BiH with 4,000 marks over posts by its Municipal Board in Gornji Vakuf-Uskoplje on social media. Along with the fine, that party was ordered to remove the content in question, making it the only measure from the session that demands a concrete action rather than just a payment.
Two of the three fines came from social media posts
What ties all three rulings together is not a campaign rally but a screen. Two of the three fines were issued over what was posted on Facebook, the third over a television studio appearance, and in every case it is the party that pays, not the author of the post. The burden falls on party headquarters, which answer both for their leader’s account and for a municipal board’s account in a town several hundred kilometers from the party seat.
That marks a shift from earlier campaign material, which used to be measured in posters, billboards and rallies, things planned and ordered well in advance. A post is written in a minute, yet responsibility for it remains collective.
Countdown to October 4
The general election in Bosnia and Herzegovina is set for October 4, and the official campaign starts only a month before that date. Anything said in a studio or posted online before early September can be classified as premature, and all three rulings published on Thursday fell on that classification.
For parties in Republika Srpska, that means the next four weeks, until the formal start of the campaign, will pass under the watch of a body that has already shown it will not wait for the official start. The next move belongs to the Communications Regulatory Agency, to which the cases involving television appearances were forwarded. It is exactly two months to election day.
