The election campaigns for local elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which will take place on Saturday, 2 October 2004, were conducted mainly in a democratic atmosphere characterized by fairness and absence of any major incidents that might have put in question the validity of the elections. (29-SEP-04)

 

Involvement of the leaders of religious communities

The salient feature of the campaign was the large degree of involvement of the leaders of religious communities, who, for the most part, implicitly navigated the constituencies to vote for the three nationalistic parties – SDS, SDA and HDZ.

 

The content of the electoral campaigns

When it comes to the content of the electoral campaigns, the representatives of the political parties used mainly the similar rhetoric. The issues dealt with were usually far from those that concern local communities, whose municipal assemblies will be elected during the October elections. There were few issues that were related to the local communities, and the discussions focused on the integration into European structures, employment, vulnerable position of own people, and “high politics”. Rather than expounding their ideas and programmes, save the general promises given, the candidates mainly tried to discredit their political opponents.

 


The media coverage of the campaigns

The media coverage of the campaigns was altogether fair, and media treated all the parties and independent candidates equally. The electronic media debates were frequently conducted without the presence of the candidates from the largest ruling parties, SDA, SDS and HDZ, who probably thought that what the religious officials were doing for their own promotion was sufficient. The media missed the opportunity to have a stronger influence on the voter outturn. Instead, they broadcasted the statements of the people from the show business and independent intellectuals who declared that they did not intend to vote.

PRESS RELEASE of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Campaign in the sign of religious leaders!