At yesterday's emergency session, the Central Election Commission (CEC) of B&H rejected the proposal of member Suad Arnautović to include in the agenda the statement on counting 2,122 envelopes with ballots, which arrived by mail from abroad and are in the CEC warehouse.

Legal obligation

Arnautović explained that these envelopes were delayed in B&H not because of a mistake by the CEC or the DCM and the B&H Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but because of the difficult transfer from abroad to our country, which was caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Commenting on the decision, Srebrenica mayoral candidate Alija Tabaković recalled that people had duly registered to vote.

- The CEC had to keep in mind the current situation, by their mistake people did not receive the voting material on time. The last contingent of mail from Sarajevo to the United States was sent on October 26th, which is 25 days before the elections, although it is a legal obligation to do so 45 days before - Tabaković explained and reiterated the position that the elections in Srebrenica must be repeated.

He added that, according to his information, the last shipment of materials went abroad on November 5th, 10 days before the election.

- Theoretically, there is no chance that such a ballot will go abroad and return on time. We will wait for the final decision of the CEC on the issue of Srebrenica, we will not give up. We have information that out of 1,600 envelopes with the votes of Bosniaks, only 800 arrived on time. In the end, that determines the final winner - Tabaković emphasized.

Late mail

He points out that the CEC should keep in mind that voters are not to blame.

- The one who is guilty should accept responsibility, and in this case the greatest responsibility is borne by the CEC. They did not send the election material on time. We have information, for example, that the last contingent of election material for the United States was sent on October 26th, after that it stood at the Sarajevo airport for ten days, and the shipment arrived at its destination 15 days after the election - Tabaković said.

They also received the material on December 1st

- The deadline for returning the envelopes with the votes to Sarajevo was ten days after the elections, that is, until November 25th. However, people sent us photos of the submitted material showing the postmark and the date of arrival - November 27th. So, the mail arrived in the USA a few days after the deadline set for it to return to Sarajevo! We have had cases in the USA where some of our citizens received their material even on December 1st - said Tabaković.