N1BOS — broadcast
20260814 180000 UTC
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[00:00:57] Good evening, this is another Red Line, I am Marina Fratucan. The Law on
[00:01:01] the Election of National Deputies, local elections
[00:01:04] and the Constitutional Court, among other things, with the possibility for one voter
[00:01:08] to support multiple lists. Are Petrošinović's laws
[00:01:11] fulfilling the ODIHR recommendations or are these cosmetic changes that do
[00:01:14] not contribute to preventing abuses of the electoral process in Serbia?
[00:01:18] Will electronic voter identification and ballot
[00:01:22] box scanners reduce electoral irregularities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, or is
[00:01:25] the existence of a central election commission a violation of the electoral law
[00:01:28] of Bosnia and Herzegovina? Does the new electoral law of Croatia
[00:01:32] correct the inequality in the weight of votes and thus make the electoral process
[00:01:35] more legitimate, or are political pressures on
[00:01:38] institutions, and sometimes on voters, still more dominant than
[00:01:42] changes in electoral laws in all countries of the region that would make
[00:01:46] the processes more transparent and credible, and how in
[00:01:49] such circumstances can trust be restored among citizens in the electoral process
[00:01:53] as the greatest act of democracy? About electoral conditions in the countries of the region
[00:01:57] tonight on Red Line, we have Sofija Mandić, a lawyer from the Center for Judicial
[00:02:00] Research Cepris, Darijo Jovanović from the Pod Lupom Coalition, Ivan
[00:02:04] Rimac, professor of law and political analyst. Good evening
[00:02:06] everyone. Good evening. Good evening. So,
[00:02:10] it's been a somewhat tumultuous week in Serbia, in the assembly
[00:02:13] a set of, so to speak, electoral laws
[00:02:16] and amendments to electoral laws are being considered, which should
[00:02:20] enable Serbia to receive that package from the European
[00:02:23] Union, to restore voters' trust in the electoral
[00:02:27] process. However, we have seen that this is not entirely the case,
[00:02:30] there are various reactions from opposition representatives and experts
[00:02:34] to this set of laws. I announced four
[00:02:37] that should be changed, but here, Ms.
[00:02:41] Mandić, you are intensely involved in these issues and it would seem that you
[00:02:44] do not quite agree with the idea of the representatives
[00:02:48] of SNS, in fact, now we see Petrešinović's laws, we had
[00:02:51] Mrdić's because of which Serbia, it is said,
[00:02:55] is not frozen, but let's say, stopped with this new tranche
[00:02:59] of funds from the European Union, but what is important for us here in these areas and
[00:03:02] especially for voters is to somehow restore that trust in the
[00:03:06] electoral process, so you are skeptical, you even said
[00:03:10] that it could legalize all those illegalities that have existed
[00:03:14] until now, so what awaits us with what we are seeing this week
[00:03:17] in the assembly? Yes, well, let's say, since we are talking in
[00:03:21] this regional context with
[00:03:23] colleagues from Croatia and Bosnia and
[00:03:26] Herzegovina, that Serbia, unfortunately, in these previous 14
[00:03:30] years, lost free elections, we once had them,
[00:03:34] now we no longer have them, it has
[00:03:36] now become a serious political issue, not only
[00:03:40] internal but also international, as you said,
[00:03:43] progress in the area of elections is
[00:03:46] linked to the use of European Union funds
[00:03:50] and generally to the process of European
[00:03:54] integration, so not only for this financial part, but also
[00:03:56] generally. When it comes to these laws, I will say
[00:04:00] what the problem is, but again
[00:04:03] vote. When they vote on I say, due to the regional context and for the sake of my colleagues, let me just mention that the
[00:04:07] ODIHR recommendations, which I think are a reference point for all of us,
[00:04:10] so according to that common OSCE methodology,
[00:04:14] all our elections are observed, and
[00:04:16] Serbia received, after the last parliamentary elections,
[00:04:19] 25 recommendations, of which seven are priority, and they
[00:04:23] primarily relate to practice, so everything we
[00:04:26] are talking about now, when we talk about changing laws, is actually
[00:04:30] just an attempt by the authorities here
[00:04:33] to divert attention from practice to norms, so
[00:04:37] those recommendations that relate to potential changes in laws are
[00:04:40] really a small part of what Serbia is
[00:04:43] recommended to do to restore free elections. We, by practice, when
[00:04:47] I say we, I mean the Republic of Serbia, its state bodies, we hardly
[00:04:51] deal with practice at all, state bodies
[00:04:54] are quite consistent in violating electoral legislation,
[00:04:57] I say then when it's time for...
[00:05:00] European integration, for withdrawing funds, then it is said, well, let's
[00:05:04] change the laws again,
[00:05:07] what is now in the procedure, I have already
[00:05:10] stated in Serbia in the local context,
[00:05:14] that it is only about cosmetic changes, in
[00:05:17] my opinion, but that it is about a potential worsening
[00:05:21] of electoral conditions through changes in laws, and we really often see in Serbia that
[00:05:25] international recommendations are used to
[00:05:28] not improve things, but to set them back, and
[00:05:32] two key things that
[00:05:35] will lead to such an outcome is actually
[00:05:39] the principle of one person, more signatures. Until now, we had
[00:05:42] the signing of electoral lists for candidacies, where one person could
[00:05:46] only sign one list. Now that will
[00:05:50] change if these changes are adopted. So that's one thing that was
[00:05:53] subject to abuses in previous election
[00:05:57] cycles, and the other thing is actually the abolition
[00:06:01] of any mechanisms by which
[00:06:04] minority electoral lists would be reviewed, i.e.,
[00:06:08] their minority status, whether
[00:06:11] that privileged position of minority lists, because they
[00:06:15] collect much fewer signatures and need much fewer votes for
[00:06:18] one mandate, so whether these minority lists
[00:06:21] are potentially being abused by some groups. So this is
[00:06:25] now literally being removed from the law, and the
[00:06:28] number, the circle of those who can run as
[00:06:31] minority representatives, including groups of citizens
[00:06:35] yes, now we have said what is problematic,
[00:06:38] what is not there, which was pointed out in the assembly is that...
[00:06:42] official campaign, voter list, REM or what is
[00:06:46] most important, somehow pressures on voters and even
[00:06:49] violence, which we have actually witnessed in Serbia for several years,
[00:06:53] and intensified in the last year. That's right,
[00:06:57] and so maybe just in this first part, let's reiterate
[00:07:00] what the European Parliament said about the elections in
[00:07:04] Serbia in February 2024, so
[00:07:07] it's about some kind of need to change some minor things,
[00:07:11] the European Parliament already
[00:07:14] concluded that elections in Serbia
[00:07:17] take place by systematically abusing institutions and
[00:07:21] media to establish
[00:07:24] the advantage of the ruling party, so it's about systemic,
[00:07:27] serious structural flaws that have been built
[00:07:31] over these 14 years that have led to these
[00:07:35] truly numerous, incredibly serious recommendations. When you
[00:07:39] look at contaminated...
[00:07:42] "every phase, so from candidacy to
[00:07:45] decision-making on legal remedies, there is practically not a single
[00:07:49] phase of the electoral procedure with which we do not have a problem.
[00:07:52] Somewhere, it seems to me, it is important for me to say, that
[00:07:56] here, in our country, it is still considered, unfortunately,
[00:07:59] that improving electoral conditions or
[00:08:03] achieving the true will of the voters is some
[00:08:06] activity that happens on election day. We all
[00:08:10] get together and we are all at the polling stations and we take the minutes of
[00:08:14] the work of the polling committees. That is a much more complex job
[00:08:17] and for some things we as
[00:08:21] election observers or members of election commissions, by the way, I am also
[00:08:24] a member of the republican election commission, or members of polling
[00:08:28] committees, we absolutely cannot do anything
[00:08:31] without any systemic intervention, primarily when it comes to
[00:08:35] the voter list and the media. And here, just as
[00:08:38] an illustration of that terrible media image and what...
[00:08:42] It seems to me that it is not discussed enough in the last parliamentary
[00:08:45] elections, the ratio in the media was
[00:08:48] such that the ruling party and its coalition partners
[00:08:52] occupied 80% of the media space,
[00:08:55] the opposition 20%, and of those 20%
[00:08:59] of the opposition, in 19%
[00:09:02] of cases it was presented negatively, so only in
[00:09:05] 1% of that piece that belongs to the opposition, only one
[00:09:09] percent was positive, so even if everything else
[00:09:12] is fine, it's not. Only that data shows
[00:09:16] how much, how much unfair any
[00:09:19] competition is led by those who are running on the opposition
[00:09:23] side. So this, in short, was the picture of
[00:09:27] Serbia, pre-election Serbia. Serbia is still waiting for the date
[00:09:30] of the elections. There were announcements for various church holidays
[00:09:34] that it would be Đurđe Davidovdan, well, Vidovdan has not arrived yet, but
[00:09:37] we will see if we will find out when these elections will actually be, but Bosnia
[00:09:41] and Herzegovina. "recently received the date for general elections,
[00:09:45] it was somewhat announced that it would be in the autumn, October 4th, right?
[00:09:49] is the date when general elections should be held.
[00:09:52] Now, it seems like a rather alarming situation in Serbia, but at least according
[00:09:56] to the media reports, it seems that better days are coming for Bosnia and Herzegovina,
[00:10:00] a new era, new technologies for democracy and
[00:10:03] so on. First, let's say that this is electronic voter
[00:10:07] identification, ballot box scanners, everything sounds
[00:10:10] quite sci-fi, so to speak, at least when it comes to
[00:10:14] our region here. We in Serbia are fighting for voters
[00:10:17] not to be beaten at polling stations. You will have this
[00:10:20] total electronics which should lead to truly
[00:10:24] transparent elections, at least that's what they say. Now, is that really the case, Mr.
[00:10:28] Jovanović?
[00:10:30] Well, we will have better elections than we had, that is definitely
[00:10:34] Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the situation
[00:10:37] in many countries of the region, at least those that are not
[00:10:40] members of the European Union, but want to
[00:10:43] become so, did not have completely free and
[00:10:46] fair elections. We had a lot of problems in the electoral
[00:10:49] process. What we have now is that
[00:10:53] after 12 years of intensive work,
[00:10:56] advocacy, we will have electronic voter
[00:11:00] identification scanners at all polling stations. This will prevent
[00:11:03] proven electoral fraud and irregularities in the form of double voting,
[00:11:07] voting for deceased persons, voting for those who did not go to the polls, but
[00:11:11] much more importantly, fraud after 7 PM, i.e., after
[00:11:14] the closing of polling stations, in the form of using unused
[00:11:17] ballots, that is, inflating the turnout
[00:11:20] of votes for certain political
[00:11:23] subjects. So... the scanner will prevent
[00:11:26] adding votes especially on
[00:11:30] preferential votes, that is, on open lists and
[00:11:33] invalidation, i.e., annulment of votes for political
[00:11:37] opponents. 83% of citizens of Bosnia
[00:11:40] and Herzegovina, according to our latest research, support the introduction of new
[00:11:43] technologies, as a way to combat proven electoral fraud and
[00:11:47] irregularities. We collected over 100,000
[00:11:50] signatures for a citizen's petition in a period of 45
[00:11:53] days in 2022 for the introduction of new electoral technologies, and that is
[00:11:57] finally happening. We had a lot of political obstructions in the process
[00:12:01] of introducing new technologies. Political parties actually
[00:12:05] did not want new technologies to be
[00:12:08] introduced, even though in many countries where new technologies exist, and
[00:12:12] they exist in 96 countries worldwide, in 15 out of 27 EU member
[00:12:16] states, it actually represents a historical and
[00:12:19] national project. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, this happened not
[00:12:22] thanks to the state, but despite the state. Mhm, but nevertheless,
[00:12:26] it represents a huge victory for citizens and actually
[00:12:29] a prerequisite for us to have at least on election day free
[00:12:33] and fair elections. So the issue of technologies all this time for us
[00:12:36] is not a question of technical improvements in elections, but a question
[00:12:40] of fundamental, that is, improvements in a democratic
[00:12:43] sense, and the question of new technologies,
[00:12:46] if you will, is also a question of political, but I would
[00:12:50] say human dignity, because what we
[00:12:53] want, we are not interested in the results of voting, but we are very interested
[00:12:57] in those results reflecting the true electoral will of the citizens. This was
[00:13:01] largely not the case until now. We
[00:13:03] had individuals and political
[00:13:06] entities who came to power through electoral fraud, that is, criminal acts.
[00:13:09] And when someone comes to power through a criminal act, that is no longer
[00:13:13] a politician, it is a criminal. You mentioned here that it's on
[00:13:17] election day. Many, in any case, the days before the elections are important.
[00:13:21] We mentioned them here in Serbia, and we will later touch upon Bosnia and Herzegovina in
[00:13:24] that pre-election period. What interests me, since we're already talking about technology, is another
[00:13:28] question related to technology. If I understood correctly, after
[00:13:32] the voting ends, so the scanners will
[00:13:35] output that number, something is entered into the application. If
[00:13:39] the numbers don't match, it will be
[00:13:43] done multiple times, but in the end, as they say, manual counting can
[00:13:46] ultimately decide. Did I understand correctly or not?
[00:13:50] Yes, but that is really the ultimate outcome, so what is very important
[00:13:54] is that the traditional method of voting does not change, so voters
[00:13:57] still come to the polling station. This time they are identified not only
[00:14:01] by personal documents which are scanned this time,
[00:14:05] i.e., the MRZ code on the back of
[00:14:09] the document is taken, but also a fingerprint is taken,
[00:14:12] which is actually the best way of identification. That fingerprint
[00:14:16] is also checked in real
[00:14:19] time and matches
[00:14:22] the database of the State Agency for Identification documents, and only
[00:14:25] then can a voter proceed to
[00:14:28] a paper ballot, they mark the political subject and candidate as
[00:14:32] before. Before that ballot is placed in the ballot box, it will be
[00:14:36] scanned. All images of all ballots will be saved
[00:14:40] on the scanner, and the scanner can process the voting results. None
[00:14:44] of these devices are online during the entire voting process,
[00:14:47] only the scanner is, therefore, at a certain time when it is ready, turned on
[00:14:51] to transfer those results that are stored in it to the database
[00:14:55] of the Central Election Commission. These results are immediately published,
[00:14:58] preliminary. So our data
[00:15:01] from pilots that were conducted in 2024 show
[00:15:05] that the average scanning time for both ballots is 45
[00:15:09] seconds, and the average time for transferring results is 93
[00:15:12] seconds. We think that time is worth democracy in Bosnia and
[00:15:15] Herzegovina. Also, manual
[00:15:18] counting is performed. If the results of manual counting
[00:15:22] and the results in the scanner differ, it will be recounted, but only
[00:15:25] in the main counting center of the Central Election Commission. Votes are actually not
[00:15:29] recounted in local election commissions, which was also a sensitive
[00:15:33] process. Now they say, is that a violation of the electoral law that it goes to
[00:15:36] the Central Election Commission in Sarajevo?
[00:15:40] No, it is actually not a violation of the electoral law, so
[00:15:43] the results of manual counting are aggregated in the same
[00:15:47] way. That was actually a procedure that was possible
[00:15:50] earlier, for manual counting to happen in local election
[00:15:54] commissions and in the Central Election Commission, i.e., the main counting center.
[00:15:57] Now, one step has actually just been skipped, which
[00:16:01] I think is good given the great politicization of the local
[00:16:04] election commissions themselves. And just one more quick thing, since we're already
[00:16:07] detailing this, there are no elections yet, there's time until October, but
[00:16:11] so can it be an x or must it
[00:16:13] be a circle?
[00:16:15] Uh, it is recommended to fill in the field, mhm
[00:16:19] on that ballot where effectively we
[00:16:22] color this time the field for the candidate or political
[00:16:26] subject, but the scanner can therefore recognize any
[00:16:29] way of marking the box,
[00:16:32] but we, of course, have five more months to
[00:16:36] bring the new way of voting closer to the voters, which does not mean
[00:16:39] only the use of new technologies, coloring that field, but actually
[00:16:43] also some other improvements that have happened, such as
[00:16:46] the number of preferences. It is impossible to vote for more than three
[00:16:50] preferences. Yes, before we move on to Croatia as a member
[00:16:54] of the European Union, let me just say, votes are cast for elections for members of the Presidency of Bosnia and
[00:16:57] Herzegovina, representatives for state and entity parliaments, president and
[00:17:00] vice-president of Republika Srpska, and representatives in cantonal assemblies, right?
[00:17:04] Yes, six electoral races, four each. In each
[00:17:07] entity, a lot of paper, a lot of work
[00:17:11] for these new technological inventions. Mr. Rimac, we have
[00:17:15] heard from Bosnia and Herzegovina about new achievements. Croatia, although a member
[00:17:18] of the European Union, does not have that, right? No, it doesn't. I must
[00:17:22] congratulate my colleagues from Bosnia
[00:17:25] and Herzegovina for having advanced that process so much. Mhm. In fact,
[00:17:29] we still have voting with
[00:17:33] ballots that are not really ballots but
[00:17:37] large sheets, because for example, for parliamentary
[00:17:40] elections, we have 10
[00:17:43] electoral units from which 14 candidates are elected,
[00:17:46] kandidata,
[00:17:48] uh, that is, 14 of those who received the most
[00:17:52] votes, whether the voter voted for
[00:17:55] a party, then it goes by the order as listed on
[00:17:59] the ballot, or gave a preferential vote within that
[00:18:02] party to one of the candidates.
[00:18:05] Of course, there are some rules.
[00:18:07] "If a preferential vote is given to one,
[00:18:10] and a party vote to another, then
[00:18:14] this conflict is naturally
[00:18:17] resolved. Similarly, if more than one
[00:18:20] different circling is done, then
[00:18:24] that ballot is invalid, and so on. What
[00:18:27] is relatively clear in the Croatian system
[00:18:29] is that there are few invalid
[00:18:33] ballots. However, this control of
[00:18:37] the voters themselves, that is, this scanning of identity
[00:18:40] cards, especially fingerprints, is
[00:18:44] certainly something that would be welcome in Croatia,
[00:18:48] because first, those who cannot
[00:18:51] go to the polls because they are, for example, immobile or something
[00:18:55] else, have the right to request
[00:18:58] that part of the election commission go to the field
[00:19:01] and conduct the voting in their
[00:19:05] home, which... It is not completely clear who
[00:19:09] from the commission goes on such
[00:19:12] an outing, whether it is done in all
[00:19:16] electoral units, i.e., at all polling stations, or is it
[00:19:19] communicated by phone or some other way?
[00:19:22] Mhm, there is already a possibility of manipulation there. Another atypical
[00:19:26] thing is that there is still some
[00:19:29] manipulation, although I think in all three countries there is
[00:19:33] that key problem of the so-called Bulgarian train, that
[00:19:36] is, blackmailing voters
[00:19:39] to receive a blank ballot from some
[00:19:43] political party and for the party to demand that
[00:19:47] they record what they circled and return the blank ballot they received
[00:19:50] at the polling station. Unfortunately, we cannot
[00:19:53] achieve this control by any other means than
[00:19:56] by controlling the paper
[00:20:00] ballots themselves. As for
[00:20:03] the rest of the process, we
[00:20:06] have a change in the law on
[00:20:09] electoral units for parliamentary elections, because we
[00:20:12] had a disproportionate
[00:20:16] change in the number of inhabitants in certain electoral units, and this
[00:20:20] led to a decision by the Constitutional Court that not all
[00:20:23] voters have equal rights in
[00:20:27] the voting process, because some elect
[00:20:30] 14 representatives from
[00:20:33] a now smaller electoral unit, some
[00:20:36] from a larger electoral unit.
[00:20:40] These electoral units have now been redrawn so that
[00:20:44] they have more or less
[00:20:46] the range of voters that is prescribed
[00:20:50] by law, which I think is less than 3% difference between
[00:20:54] electoral units. However, these electoral units,
[00:20:58] there are 10 of them,
[00:21:01] do not coincide with the structure of
[00:21:04] the largest local units, i.e., counties,
[00:21:08] nor with municipalities, so we have some
[00:21:12] very strangely drawn electoral units. In such
[00:21:15] conditions, the campaign
[00:21:18] for elections is very difficult for candidates
[00:21:22] who enter very different
[00:21:24] spaces. Zagreb has three electoral
[00:21:28] units that it shares with neighboring areas,
[00:21:31] which do not necessarily have the same problems or
[00:21:34] the same desires, and even not the local
[00:21:38] government is different from, say, Zagreb.
[00:21:42] There
[00:21:44] is a possibility that
[00:21:47] simply with such electoral
[00:21:50] units, the ruling party or,
[00:21:54] more or less, only the ruling party predominantly proposed these
[00:21:57] new electoral units, uh, they draw electoral units
[00:22:01] in such a way that opposition parties that
[00:22:05] are visible and dominant in some
[00:22:08] local units are somewhat
[00:22:11] hindered by those surrounding added
[00:22:15] areas that are under their rule, so that the
[00:22:18] ratio of elected representatives in that electoral
[00:22:22] unit does not largely refer
[00:22:26] only to those who were, for example,
[00:22:29] dominant. Then we can conclude then we can conclude that these changes to the electoral
[00:22:33] law that were in 23 and came into force before the parliamentary elections in 24 are actually
[00:22:37] not enough to make that electoral process in
[00:22:40] Croatia, let's say, transparent. I mean, transparent doesn't mean it's not transparent because of that,
[00:22:44] but that these are not enough changes. I think the problems remain, as far
[00:22:47] as I understood, with residence, primarily with the
[00:22:50] diaspora when voting, there are
[00:22:53] problems, or, well, we have
[00:22:56] now a fixed number of representatives from the so-called
[00:23:00] diaspora, that is, representatives, representatives who
[00:23:03] are elected by citizens of the Republic of Croatia who
[00:23:06] live outside the territory of the Republic of Croatia, but
[00:23:10] a big problem was actually the spillover of voters
[00:23:14] who were from Bosnia and
[00:23:17] Herzegovina, especially from Herzegovina, who could
[00:23:20] cross the border on the same day and vote in Bosnia
[00:23:23] and Herzegovina for diaspora representatives
[00:23:27] in Croatia where they could have registered
[00:23:31] residence and thus vote again in the electoral unit
[00:23:34] that is along the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina. That means their vote counts
[00:23:38] twice. Yes, yes, but for actually
[00:23:41] different lists. As for minority representatives, they have
[00:23:45] a fixed number. However,
[00:23:49] that number of, besides
[00:23:52] Serbian and Italian representatives, is actually
[00:23:56] rotating, given that it concerns very small national
[00:23:59] minorities, so they have
[00:24:03] a rotation from election to election of which national
[00:24:07] minority gives a delegate to that
[00:24:10] quota of representatives from national minorities.
[00:24:14] Yes, just one more question while we are in Croatia, would a combined system be a solution? Less
[00:24:18] than 60 out of 120 are elected from one electoral
[00:24:22] unit,
[00:24:23] I mean,
[00:24:26] we have a very different economic
[00:24:30] development and very different needs
[00:24:34] of people in different regions, and after all,
[00:24:37] the size of individual regions is significantly
[00:24:40] different. Zagreb has over 700,000
[00:24:43] inhabitants, Lika has 350,000
[00:24:46] inhabitants, pardon 35,000. So,
[00:24:50] 20 times less, if we had one electoral
[00:24:53] unit, some of these depopulated areas,
[00:24:57] especially the hinterland of the coast, would practically not
[00:25:00] be represented in parliament. Sofija,
[00:25:03] you wanted to add something, I assume about this voting across the border.
[00:25:07] Yes, yes, actually all the things that
[00:25:10] my colleague mentioned, I just wanted
[00:25:13] to present them in the mirror when it comes to Serbia, because it is obvious
[00:25:17] that the problems are similar, maybe not of the same intensity.
[00:25:20] Our people abroad have
[00:25:23] exceptional problems registering to vote
[00:25:27] at polling stations outside
[00:25:30] the country, and it is necessary that 100
[00:25:33] of them vote, right, to register to vote for it to even
[00:25:37] be possible, and they actually have a
[00:25:40] condition that citizens in Serbia don't have, because even though
[00:25:43] polling stations in Serbia range from 100 to
[00:25:47] 2,500 voters, very often. polling stations
[00:25:50] are determined even where there are only about 50 voters, that, for example,
[00:25:54] is not allowed for our people abroad, that is, to
[00:25:57] vote if there are fewer than 100 of them. Also, I think
[00:26:01] this question is interesting. the question of the so-called Bulgarian train, I'm sorry
[00:26:04] that we still call it that, somehow the Bulgarians suffered
[00:26:07] the most there, it seems.
[00:26:11] So there is also a possibility to correct this
[00:26:14] matter, that is, that voters, from the moment they receive
[00:26:18] a circled ballot from themselves,
[00:26:22] at least it is possible in Serbia, I don't know how it is in the region. Our rules
[00:26:25] are such that you can practically cross out what is already circled
[00:26:29] and circle something else, but for
[00:26:33] such a thing, that voter needs to be
[00:26:36] above average informed and be encouraged to do such a thing, these
[00:26:40] are very often scared people who either
[00:26:43] are not aware of these options or, if they are aware, are afraid
[00:26:47] to put them into practice, and the third thing I wanted to say, if it is
[00:26:51] obviously similar, is this voting outside the polling station, which is
[00:26:54] also, among other things that have become problematic in Serbia, this has also
[00:26:58] become problematic. So at the last parliamentary elections, over
[00:27:02] 100 people voted outside the polling
[00:27:05] station, even though we have somewhat more precise rules that you can
[00:27:08] apply by phone to the electoral commission on election day until 11
[00:27:12] o'clock, it is known who goes to vote outside the polling station,
[00:27:16] what that commission looks like, but further we practically have
[00:27:19] one census, one parliamentary party, right? That is
[00:27:23] the level somewhere around 100,000 voters, uh, which is
[00:27:27] that amount of votes obtained in
[00:27:30] this way, and that is... beyond all early, so much more
[00:27:34] than in all previous parliamentary elections, and that is
[00:27:37] worrying. We expect that this abuse
[00:27:41] will continue to be used, let me just, before we play
[00:27:44] the report from Serbia, state regarding Serbia and Croatia, where you mentioned
[00:27:48] the diaspora, it's quite interesting, it seems that the diaspora in Croatia
[00:27:51] supports the ruling party, while the diaspora in Serbia seems, at least
[00:27:55] according to the latest research and, shall I say,
[00:27:58] echoes, maybe it would be said that it no longer really
[00:28:02] supports the ruling party, so that's why it's debatable whether
[00:28:06] they can vote if there are fewer of them and so on. Look, we actually, we
[00:28:10] actually don't know for those Croatian citizens
[00:28:13] who went to the West to other countries, what their
[00:28:17] political orientation is. They
[00:28:19] are more or less for economic reasons, but also due to
[00:28:23] the assessment of the prospects of life in Croatia, they went to other
[00:28:26] countries. Uh, what is typical is that
[00:28:29] everyone in all other countries, those
[00:28:32] voters vote at Croatian representative offices in
[00:28:36] that country. Uh, only voters from
[00:28:40] Bosnia and Herzegovina have open polling stations,
[00:28:43] that within the area
[00:28:47] where they are the dominant group in
[00:28:50] Bosnia and Herzegovina, that
[00:28:53] corpus of Croatian presence in Bosnia and
[00:28:56] Herzegovina is dominant and it actually determines those
[00:28:59] representatives who are uh elected
[00:29:03] in the diaspora. So, others
[00:29:07] from other parts of the world are counted on the fingers of one
[00:29:11] or two hands, so
[00:29:13] seven vote in Sydney, 17 in Los
[00:29:16] Angeles, five, and so on, while from Bosnia and
[00:29:20] Herzegovina we have figures of several
[00:29:23] tens of thousands. I wanted a report from Serbia, but I don't think it's fair
[00:29:26] not to ask Mr. Jovanović, since Bosnia and Herzegovina and the diaspora, which have such an impact,
[00:29:30] have been mentioned so much. quite a lot on this election process in Croatia itself.
[00:29:34] Well, it's not just in Croatia, we
[00:29:36] also had the Belgrade election, what
[00:29:39] happened, so what we have is this phenomenon of voter phalanxes,
[00:29:43] I would say, among these four
[00:29:47] neighboring countries,
[00:29:49] or rather three countries that are neighbors of Bosnia and Herzegovina,
[00:29:53] so we often have the same people or group
[00:29:57] of people who elect the government in Banja Luka, in Belgrade,
[00:30:00] or here in Mostar, in...
[00:30:03] "in Dalmatia, maybe, or in Split, this is a problem that
[00:30:06] no one actually wants to solve, it is consciously politically placed there,
[00:30:10] we know that all three of these seats in the Croatian Parliament actually come from Bosnia and
[00:30:13] Herzegovina, that these are in a way sure
[00:30:16] votes of a certain political, political milieu, and
[00:30:20] it would be possible to solve it given that we, as a legacy of that
[00:30:24] former common state, have a unique personal identification
[00:30:27] number, which is actually equally or similarly,
[00:30:30] or rather, in the same way,
[00:30:32] because residence is considered only the place formed in all these four countries, so that
[00:30:35] by comparing the voter lists
[00:30:38] we would come to who has dual residences in
[00:30:41] countries, which is forbidden by many laws and even the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina,
[00:30:47] where you have
[00:30:50] settled with the aim of living there permanently, right?
[00:30:53] And you wouldn't be able to actually have two residences,
[00:30:57] this is being abused, mm..."