VRANJEŠ SEEKS CEC RESPONSE OVER SERB REPRESENTATION ABSENCE ON BELGRADE POLLING BOARD

BELGRADE, SEPTEMBER 30 /SRNA/ - BiH Ambassador to Serbia Aleksandar Vranješ today sent another urgent request to the BiH Central Election Commission /CEC/ asking whether elections at the BiH Embassy in Belgrade can be held without Serb members of the polling board, whom Foreign Minister in the Council of Ministers Elmedin Konaković summoned to Ministry headquarters for "consultations".

In the letter, seen by SRNA, Vranješ pointed out to CEC members that Article 1.5, paragraph five of the BiH Election Law stipulates that the CEC appoints polling boards for voting at diplomatic and consular missions and that each polling board must include members from each of the three constituent peoples. He reminded CEC members that, by their September 17 decision appointing members of the polling board, they had ensured representation of each constituent people on the board at the BiH Embassy in Belgrade. "However, since the Serb members of the polling board at the BiH Embassy in Belgrade were, on the foreign minister's orders, summoned to so-called `consultations` at Ministry headquarters, implementation of this decision has been called into question," Vranješ warned. He noted that he had already asked the CEC for information on how the election would be conducted at the BiH Embassy in Belgrade and had raised concerns about what he described as a threat to the integrity of the electoral process at that polling station, but had received no response. Vranješ therefore again called on the CEC to say what action it had taken over what he described as an obvious violation of the BiH Election Law by the foreign minister and to explain how it intended to resolve the situation. Konaković summoned the polling board president and a substitute member at the polling station in the BiH Embassy in Belgrade to consultations in Sarajevo, Vranješ had stated in an earlier letter to the CEC.