HUMANITARIAN AID CONDITIONED BY POLLING PLACE

Warning of the Appelate Subcommittee

AIM Sarajevo, july 20, 1996

Election Appelate Subcommittee registered that employees throughout Bosnia & Herzegovina conditioned social benefits to displaced persons and distribution of humanitarian aid by their choice of the place where they would vote, as stated in an information issued by the Election Appelate Subcommittee.

"In some cases, the local employees demand from displaced persons to show them form no. 2 certifying that they would vorte in that municipality, while in other environments, displaced persons are deprived of humanitarian aid if they have decided to vote for the authorities in their home municipalities", it is further claimed in this information of the Subcommittee.

The Subcommittee strongly condemns such acts and reminds that it is illegal to link humanitarian aid and other benefits with the individual choice of polling station. Members of the Subcommittee remind that General Peace Agreement for B&H and Rules and Regulations of the Temporary Electoral Committee enable each citizen of B&H to vote in person or in absence for the authorities either in the municipality where he/she lived in 1991, to vote in the municipality where he/she is living now or in the muinicipality in which he/she intends to live.

"This is the fundamental principle of free choice of each citizen which guarantees free, fair and democratic elections", reads the information of the Electoral Appelate Subcommittee.

The Subcommittee warns that the forms for registering the place where a person wishes to vote cannot and must not be used for depriving citizens of social benefits or for any other purposes.

Such acts are flagrant violation of the voting right, Rules and Regulations of the Temporary Electoral Committee, and fundamental human rights guaranteed by the Constitution of B&H.

B.R.