The “Pod Lupom” coalition activists were threatened in Lopare, coalition director Dario Jovanovic said, adding that they registered 99 serious violations of the voting process in the country by 9 am. The Coalition added they received reports of tear gas being thrown in Doboj, but this allegation was later denied by the police.

“A total of 72 polling places were opened at 7 am. Additional 23 percent of polling places opened between 7 and 7:15 am. A total of 99 critical situations were registered by 9 am,” Jovanovic noted. “By critical situations, we mean serious procedural and other violations of the electoral process. We also suspected the existence of the so-called Bulgarian train in four cases in total.”

The Bulgarian train is a situation when one voter comes into a polling station with a ballot that has already been filled out, and comes out with an empty one.

“The most serious report came from Lopare (north-east Bosnia) where several persons came to the polling place with falsified credentials of some political parties who then threatened the ‘Pod Lupom’ activist to leave the polling place. All the competent authorities have been notified of this case,” he stressed.

The coalition for free and fair election – “Pod Lupom” was founded in May 2014 with the aim of implementing the project of civic, non-partisan observation of the general election in 2014. The Coalition’s activities are supported by foreign donors that have been working on improving and democratizing the electoral process in Bosnia for a very long time. Current donors are the European Union and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

Bosnia and Herzegovina’s general election is being held on Sunday, October 7.