The Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) filed an indictment against three persons charged with election fraud in the run-up to the 2010 General Elections with the goal of securing votes for the candidates of People’s Party Work for Betterment.
Dragoljub Milović, Dragan Šekarić and Branko Pereula were accused of hijacking personal identity information from a number of citizens in the Goražde area in summer of 2010. They secretly registered them to vote via mail-in ballot from addresses in Serbia and Montenegro without.
The BiH prosecutors allege that the intent was to secure votes for Daliborka Milović, the wife of the lead defendant, which she needed to cross the threshold to enter the Cantonal Assembly of Bosnia Podrinje Canton (BPK).
Under the pretext that they were registering voters and election monitors, the defendants took identity information. They also promised some of the residents that they’ll help them earn 20 KM or 30 KM, if they voted for certain candidates.
Then, they registered the citizens for mail voting from addresses in Serbia and Montenegro and forwarded their ballots to the BiH Central Election Commission.
“In this way they caused the election of Daliborka Milović as a deputy of People’s Party Work for Betterment at BPK’s Assembly in Goražde”, according to the prosecutor’s press release.
The Center for Investigative Reportin (CIN) published a story last March about the party’s activists promising citizens 100 KM if they voted for the party’s candidates in the upcoming 2010 General Elections. The promised money was paid to them from the budget of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Ministry of Agriculture, Waterworks and Forestry, the office that the party’s vice-president Jerko Ivanković Lijanović took after the elections.
