Bosnia's election body opens bags from 16 polling stations
Bosnia's Central Election Commission issued a new order to open bags of election material in Zetra, and its chairman confirmed that all packages from abroad have arrived.
The Central Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina (CIK BiH) began opening bags of election material from 16 polling stations in Sarajevo’s Zetra hall on Monday, October 12, eight days after the General Elections of October 4. For readers in Serbia, the key point is that the check also covers the National Assembly of Republika Srpska, and the race for vice president of that entity, according to the portal N1 BiH, is not yet settled.
The opening started at 2:30 p.m. at the Zetra complex on Alipasina Street. According to the commission’s statement, candidates, political entities and accredited observers may attend the count at the Main Counting Center.
What did the commission order the Main Counting Center to do?
The new order requires the bags to be opened to check their contents, to locate the results forms, known as SIT forms, and to enter the results from them. If there are no forms, the ballots are counted by hand. Among the 16 polling stations are:
- two stations (161B017 and 161B018) where votes for the National Assembly of Republika Srpska are checked together with votes for the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH
- one station (200C050B) where only votes for the National Assembly of Republika Srpska are checked
- the remaining stations in the Federation of BiH, where cantonal assemblies, the House of Representatives of the Federation Parliament and the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH are checked, and at one of them the BiH Presidency as well
This is not the first order of its kind. In the previous one, the commission ordered a manual recount of ballots from four polling stations and the opening of bags at 13 more locations, including Gradacac, Banja Luka, Lukavac, Ilijas, Vogosca, Mostar and Brcko. That count began at 3:30 p.m., also in Zetra. The Main Counting Center must also review all election material from station 200C019, to establish exactly what is in the ballots delivered from that location.
How many votes have arrived from abroad?
CIK BiH Chairman Jovan Kalaba confirmed to the FENA news agency that the shipments from abroad arrived within the deadline. “All the packages have arrived. Verification is under way and the count will begin shortly. At the moment, the votes of the mobile teams are being counted,” Kalaba said.
The deadline for shipments from abroad expired on Friday, October 9. According to the commission’s decision of July 30, 48,074 voters were registered to vote outside BiH, while 60,037 people had originally applied. How many votes actually arrived will be known only after the shipments are processed. CIK member Zeljko Bakalar said the rules require results to be announced no later than 20 days after the election, that is, by October 24.
Where do the preliminary results stand in Republika Srpska?
According to the latest preliminary data, processed at 2,046 polling stations or 98.27 percent, Savo Minic (SNSD) leads the race for president of Republika Srpska with 289,498 votes or 52.34 percent. Branko Blanusa (SDS) is second with 231,010 votes or 41.76 percent, a gap of 58,488 votes.
In the race for the Serb member of the BiH Presidency, Zeljka Cvijanovic (SNSD) leads with 306,123 votes or 55.58 percent. She is followed by Marinko Bozovic (SDS) with 145,624 votes or 26.44 percent and Nebojsa Vukanovic with 98,978 votes or 17.97 percent. Data from another 36 polling stations has not been received.
N1 BiH assesses that diaspora votes could affect the allocation of seats in the National Assembly of Republika Srpska, and that even a small number of additional votes could change the distribution in some cantonal assemblies and in the House of Representatives of the Federation Parliament.
