The head of Bosnia's election watchdog reported a 14.8 percent local election turnout by 11 am Sunday, which is 1.37 percent lower than in 2016 when turnout was at 16.17 percent.

Zeljko Bakalar, the head of the Central Election Commission (CEC) said that most polling stations opened on time (7 am) apart from a few that could not open on time due to “technical reasons.”

Recalling that these elections are held during the coronavirus pandemic, he said all 173 mobile teams were on their way to visit 3,555 voters on their addresses because they are in isolation and that complete information of these voters will be published at a later time.

According to him, law enforcement authorities have received 13 reports on incidents which can be characterised as a disruption of the electoral process. Three were reported in the Bosniak-Croat shared Federation (FBiH) entity and ten in Brcko District. The State-level law enforcement authorities received no information on incidents from the country’s Serb-dominated Republika Srpska (RS) entity.

Suad Arnautovic from the CEC recalled an incident in which a voter tried to vote in Istocni Drvar (RS) with documents issued by the Republic of Serbia, warning the citizens that they can only vote by showing identification documents issued by Bosnian authorities.

Bakalar recalled that polling stations were also opened at the Bosnian Embassy in Vienna, the Honorary Consulate in Graz, Bosnian Consulates General in Munich, Stuttgart and Chicago, and Embassies in Oslo and Belgrade.