Press Releases

The BiH Central Election Commission has at its 14th (correspondent) session held on April 9, 2020 passed a conclusion on launching an initiative for adoption of the Law supplementing the BiH Election Law, which is submitted to the BiH Parliamentary Assembly.

 

Namely, due to the well-known epidemiological situation in the country related to prevention of  the spread of the coronavirus COVID-19 epidemics the BiH Council of Ministers had on March 17, 2020 passed the Decision on proclamation of the state of natural disaster on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Official Gazette of BiH, no. 18/20), as well as the Decision on actions to be taken by the institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina aimed at protection of lives and health of the employees due to the danger of possible outbreak of the communicable disease epidemic caused by coronavirus (Covid-19) (Official Gazette of BiH, no. 18/20). Furthermore, Republika Srpska had passed the Decisions on proclamation of the emergency situation for the territory of Republika Srpska (Official Gazette of RS, no. 25/20), while the Federation of BiH had passed the Decision on proclamation of the state of disaster caused by occurrence of coronavirus (COVID-19) (Official Gazette of FBiH, no. 21/20).

Respecting the aforementioned situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, established by the above-cited decisions of the competent institutions, the capacity of the institutions is reduced, while the freedom of movement of citizens is limited.

 

As the deadlines for conduct of electoral activities, such as collection of signatures by the political subjects, would start the day after the announcement of the elections, it is clear that it cannot be done in the given circumstances, both because of limited freedom of movement and to prevent the spread of the epidemic.

 

This, as well as a number of other activities that could not be implemented, creates objective and irreversible obstacle to the conduct of free elections in accordance with the BiH Election Law.