SARAJEVO, Aug 5 (Hina) - Bosnia-Herzegovina's Main Electoral Commission on Monday proclaimed the official beginning of the pre-election campaign for the general election, scheduled for 5 October.
SARAJEVO, Aug 5 (Hina) - Bosnia-Herzegovina's Main Electoral
Commission on Monday proclaimed the official beginning of the pre-
election campaign for the general election, scheduled for 5
October. #L#
The commission's chairwoman, Lidija Korac, appealed on all
political parties, which stand for the election, to conduct the
campaign in a tolerant and democratic atmosphere.
She called on the media to cover the campaign in a professional and
unbiased manner. The Communications Regulatory Agency (CRA) will
supervise the electronic media in the coming period for this
purpose.
Fifty-two (52) political parties have announced their
participation in the fourth general polls since the conclusion of
the 1995 Dayton peace accords.
The parties proposed even 8,799 candidates, but the Commission
accepted 7,413, explaining that 1,386 persons failed to meet the
necessary requirements for being allowed to run for the elections.
One of the candidates, who is allowed to stand for the election of
Bosniak (Muslim) member of the country's collective presidency, is
Fikret Abdic.
Abdic has been recently proclaimed guilty of war crimes and
sentenced to 20-year-long imprisonment, but this is the first-
instance ruling, made by the court in the Croatian town of Karlovac,
and he can apply his candidacy and be elected until the final
ruling.
Ms. Korac confirmed that the Hungarian printer "Allamy" would print
ballots for the coming vote.
After the Commission advertised the invitation for bids for this
job, five bidders responded and a Croatian company was selected as
the best. However, the company called "Zrinski" lost this
profitable job, when it tried to increase the price on which it had
already agreed with Bosnian authorities.
After that the job, worth 1.350 million convertible marks, was
entrusted to Hungarian "Allamy" as the second best bidder.
Another three bidders were printers from Bosnia that accused the
Commission of the corruption in the selection.
The Commission resolutely refused the accusations.
(hina) ms