THE PARTY OF DEMOCRATIC ACTION

Subject: Main Board of the SDA comments on the shortcomings of the process of registration of voters, technical arrangements, poor organization by the OSCE and activities of the SDA aimed at alleviating the consequences.

MAIN BOARD ON THE ELECTIONS

Sarajevo, August 26, 1996 (AIM) - The second extraordinary session of the Main Board of the Party of Democratic Action was concluded last night in Sarajevo. It was attended by Alija Izetbegovic, the Party President, Ejup Ganic, Vice-President as well as other high officials of the ruling party. The session had only one item on the agenda - basic characteristic of the voters registration process.

Halid Genjac, President of the Main Board and the Chairman of the SDA Election Headquarters dedicated his introductory speech to this subject. According to him there was a large discrepancy between the military and civil implementation of the Dayton Agreement, basic preconditions for free and fair elections as well as for the return of people to their homes and freedom of movement have not been secured, while the OSCE has shown some major shortcomings in the preparation of the elections, particularly as regards the registration of voters in the country and abroad:

• The mentioned circumstances effect particularly the registration of voters of Bosniac nationality. Approximately 600,000 Bosniacs with voting rights are outside their homes, 140,000 are dispersed all round the Federation, while about 430,000 are in exile - said Genjac emphasizing that exiled Bosniacs are in over 50 countries all over the world.

Speaking of the shortcomings of the process of registration of voters in the country and abroad, Genjac said that the set deadlines and duration of the registration process have not been observed, that the number of registration centers in the communes was insufficient, while the PIK (Interim Electoral Commission) has verified communal commissions on the territory under the HVO control in favour of the Croat side without any consideration for the structure of the population. According to Genjac interim electoral rolls were technically deficient, and although the registration deadline has been extended no technical nor organizational improvements were made. He said that the OSCE did not use the network of diplomatic-consular representation offices in B&H and that the instructions for the voters were late and complicated, citing the example of Croatia where registration centers started working only six days before the expiry of the registration deadline.

After this Genjac commented on the activities of the SDA party aimed at alleviating the consequences of thus organized registration by the OSCE and then presented the overall registration data according to which out of 430 thousand exiled Bosniacs with a voting right only 270 thousand were registered, i.e. 60 percent. Out of 140,000 Bosniacs displaced on the territory of the Federation, about 80,000 were registered.

Genjac also claimed that out of 384,234 voters who have filled in the P-2 form (those wishing to vote in their new places of residence) about 90 percent were of the Serb nationality and about 40,000 Croats. According to Genjac the situation was most dramatic in Banja Luka, Prijedor, Brcko, Srebrenica, Bratunac, Zepce, Gornji Vakuf, Stolac, Capljina...where the ethnic structure of the cities was being changed in this way.

The SDA shall insist that ex-territorial direct voting be made possible and shall demand an extension of the registration deadline, i.e. the postponement of the September elections for at least a month. In that case only elections for the higher levels could be held on September 14-, read the conclusions of the session of the Main Board of the ruling Bosniac party.