On Monday 3 October, spokeswoman for the European External Action Service Maja Kocijancic called on the authorities of Bosnia-Herzegovina to investigate swiftly incidents that took place during the municipal elections on 2 October.
Noting that incidents, including physical attacks, had taken place in some municipalities that had led to the closure of polling stations in the Stolac municipality and the temporary closure of several others, the EU called for a swift investigation and appropriate judicial follow-up, the EEAS told EUROPE. Kocijancic said the EU took note of the holding of the elections.
The chair of the central electoral committee announced on Monday that elections had taken place in compliance with the rules and without any particular difficulty, apart from Stolac, where Croat and Muslim communities co-habit and where the vote was halted when a fight broke out in the polling station. A group of non-governmental organisations quoted by Balkans media say other violence also broke out and observers had to intervene in more than 90 critical situations. The chair of the electoral committee queried the veracity of these events.
Initial results indicate that nationalists easily took the lead in the municipal elections. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)