Municipal Elections

Cleaning Until Spring

AIM Sarajevo, 7 June, 1999

According to the "timetable" of elections in B&H, local or muniipal elections should be scheduled by the end of autumn this year. Registration of political parties has been completed, the total of 72 parties and 10 independent candidates have registered, and at the moment registration of voters is going on abroad. Verification of electoral registers has begun in B&H, but it is becoming more and more certain that the elections will not take place as scheduled but in spring next year. At the same time, there is a dilemma whether municipal elections should be held along with the general ones, in autumn 2000. The reason for such indecisiveness of the international community which is supposed to reach the final decision is the current political situation in Republika Srpska which according to the opinion of many has been radicalised under the influence of developments in the neighbourhood. Head of OSCE mission Robert Barry said that this Organization would reach the decision on the elections after consultations with political parties in B&H, but that general (parliamentary) elections in 2000 were expected to take place pursuant new permanent election law of Bosnia & Herzegovina which still needed to be passed and which was one of the priority tasks that had resulted from the Madrid conference. Numerous political analysts assess that the international community will not allow local elections in B&H until political leaderships of neighboring countries - Croatia and Yugoslavia - change. For the time being, word was sent from OSCE to political parties not to hurry with formation of their lists of candidates.

Political parties in B&H have different views of holding elections as planned or their postoponing. In the ruling, ethnic Party od Democratic Action (SDA) and Croat Democratic Community (HDZ) they say that they are ready for the elections "whenever they may be", but in both these parties they are expecting that the final decision be reached by the international community. At the same time, the ones and the others do not oppose simultaneous holding of general and municipal elections with the conclusion that this is cheaper. In SDA they claim that they expect that their participation in the authorities in Republika Srpska would increase, but also admit that they fear of possible influence of the situation in Yugoslavia on the situation in RS and possible strengthening of extremist forces in that part of B&H.

In the Liberal Party of B&H they believe that the end of this year is not a good time for municipal elections: "Local elections are primarily the question of return and registration of voters in places where they return, and the past year has not been the year of return", says vice-president Strajo Krsmanovic, adding that "if the situation in the neighbourhood which has brought about homogenisation in RS is taken into account, local elections in B&H in the foreseeable future could be a futile enterprise.

The Party for B&H assesses that "the optimum would be to hold local elections at the same time as general elections, in the middle of next year", said secretary general Safet Halilovic, and as one of the reasons for postponing municipal elections in the Party for B&H they see the situation in FR Yugoslavia which "led to homogenisation in RS and reinforced rightist radicals which gives them the opportunity to achieve a more favourable result". In this party they believe that by that time, the permenent election law of B&H would be passed which would regulate elections on all levels in a uniform way for the whole state.

The Social Democratic Party has made its own draft permanent election law and sent it for evaluation to the Office of High Representative (OHR), and then registered for the elections without reaching a decision which would stop preparations for the elections or demand their postponement because they believe in SDP that it would be convenient for the ruling parties. At the same time, in the Alternative Council of Ministers of B&H (shadow cabinet) it is believed that municipal elections should be postponed and suggest to OHR to do their best to remove from the political scene all those who do not behave in compliance with the provisions of the Dayton accords.

President of New Croat Initiative (NHI) Kresimir Zubak says that in view of legality, local elections should be held this year: "The situation is quite confused in some places where results of last elections still have not been implemented (Srebrenica, Foca...) and I think that this demands and imposes the need for scheduling elections for as soon as possible, by the end of this year. However, in NHI we think that there should be no haste in doing this until several very important preparations are made - primarily registration of voters - there was much defectiveness in the previous elections in B&H after the war, there was plenty of improvisations in them. Indeed, there were some very strange situations, like for instance that some persons could vote several times and some could not vote at all. Since registers of voters were in a mess, their final up-dating for whole B&H would be the greatest contribution of OSCE to legality of the elections, nothing else". Zubak thinks that the existing municipal electoral commissions and polling committes should be revised: "Parties founded in the meantime which participate in political life have the possibility to follow the elections but have numerous problems when composition of commissions are concerned which were at the time mostly formed by ruling parties so they consisted of persons affiliated to certain political parties. Therefore, it is better to postpone municipal elections if the situation would be anarchic again with electoral commissions, polling committees, electoral registers, like in all the previous elections since the end of the war". NHI is against simultaneous holding of general and municipal elections.

In the Bosnian Party (BOSS) they believe that the "catastrophic situation in the administration on municipal level imposes urgent scheduling of elections", but the current political moment imposes their postponement:"The situation in Republika Srpska and FR Yugoslavia imposes postponement of the elections and the announced decision of OSCE - rescheduling of municipal elections for next spring - is good. At the current moment political parties could operate only in one part of the state, but if the elections should be in spring, the situation may be stabilised and we, I mean the opposition, would be able to conduct the campaign on the territory of the entire B&H. The time could be used for passing of the permanent election law, and the municipal elections could be used as some kind of a test for implementation of this law", says president of BOSS Mirnes Ajanovic. To the question whether BOSS is minimising the significance of local elections when he mentions it as a possible test for the permenent election law, Ajanovic answers that that is not true because "local elections are after all about public utilities - electric power supply, water, cleaning streets. Not even return is the matter of municipal authorities, but of agreement at the very top", he says. In this party they believe that simultaneous holding of general and municipal elections would be counterproductive because these two electoral processes treat different problems.

Political analysts of the International Crisis Group (ICG) for crisis assess that municipal elections that would be held until the end of this year would change nothing: "The situation in RS is difficult because of the situation in Yugoslavia and the conflict with NATO. As there is danger that the conflict in Yugoslavia might go on until November, I think that the elections should be posponed", says director of ICG Brayan Hopkins. He thinks that it is not significant whether general and municipal elections will be held together or separately: "It would be better if they were held together because it is the matter of the decision of the voters and governments on all levels, from the municipality to the state have the same sense. According to Hopkins, the permanent election law of the state of B&H is a significant question: "Without a new and better law there is no chance to change the election culture. I am personally not an opponent of ethnic parties, but the ones which are nowadays in power do not cooperate, and B&H needs a government or governments which would cooperate. We have given some new proposals for the new election law. Simply - the one currently in force will not bring changes for a long time to come".

At the moment, the firm stand of the Interim Electoral Commission (PIK) of the OSCE is that municipal elections should be held in the beginning of November, but the head of OSCE mission and president of PIK Robert Barry believes that the elections should be held in spring: "He insists that municipal elections be held separately and that municipal election should by no means be connected with the general elections scheduled for September 2000", says Bosniac member of PIK Hilmo Pasic and adds that PIK has nominated local electoral commissions in all the municipalities in B&H and that their composition was changed in relation to the previous elections. At the same time, according to the words of the spokesman of OSCE, Tanja Domi, it is an established fact that holding municipal elections will cost 25.5 milion US dollars and that although instructions and training of persons who would be engaged to work in the elections has already begun, not a dollar of the money allocated for municipal elections has been spent yet.

At the same time it should be noted that there is a lack of interest for elections among the citizens of B&H, at least judging by the response to registration and checking of the electoral register. If one recalls the first post-Dayton parliamentary elections in B&H and the amounts of money OSCE assisted political parties with, perhaps it is not a bad idea for the international community in B&H to consider whether it could help these or the elections after that be successful by offering the voters, say, 10 German marks after they come to the polls. After all, according to subsequent calculus, a single vote in favour of the winning party in the then elections cost OSCE more than that (some say as much as 150 marks per vote), and in this way the citizens themselves would finally have some benefit from the elections. Perhaps they would even circle names on the ballots with more responsibility. But that is not the best solution - many would be confused searching for the name of Carlos Westendorp or OHR on the list.

Hana BAJRAKTAREVIC

AIM Sarajevo