Newsroom
Clarification of vote count in Bosnia and Herzegovina
SARAJEVO 27 September 1996
SARAJEVO, 27 September 1996 - The following statement was issued in Sarajevo today by Ambassador Robert Frowick, Head of the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina:
Intensive speculation and uncertainty over results of the voting in the 14 September elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina must be faced squarely by the OSCE Mission.
Lack of clarity in the early counting of the votes stems essentially from the absence of a precise data base in wake of the protracted warfare in the country since the 1991 census.
The point of departure for preparation of the elections was that census, which indicates an overall population of over 4,700,000, of which over 3,500,000 are estimated to have been eligible to vote. Since fatalities during the war are estimated to number between 200,000 and 300,000, an appropriate estimate of those eligible to vote in the 1996 elections would be about 3,250,000.
In the 14 September elections, some 2,400,000 citizens actually voted.
At the outset of the vote counting, unfortunately the OSCE technical staff did not utilize the 3,250,000 figure. Rather, it used an estimate of only 2,900,000 eligible voters drawn from a United Nations document that focused on refugees, not voters per se. The OSCE Mission should not have used that document as a data base, since it suggests that over 600,000 were deceased since 1991, and we know this is simply not true.
I take full responsibility for the Mission's mistake in initially basing its calculations on this manifest under-estimation of the number of eligible voters.
At the same time, I would emphasize that OSCE has undertaken a most careful retabulation of the vote, even beyond the "final unofficial count" announced on 14 September, to be absolutely sure of the integrity of the process.
Intensive speculation and uncertainty over results of the voting in the 14 September elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina must be faced squarely by the OSCE Mission.
Lack of clarity in the early counting of the votes stems essentially from the absence of a precise data base in wake of the protracted warfare in the country since the 1991 census.
The point of departure for preparation of the elections was that census, which indicates an overall population of over 4,700,000, of which over 3,500,000 are estimated to have been eligible to vote. Since fatalities during the war are estimated to number between 200,000 and 300,000, an appropriate estimate of those eligible to vote in the 1996 elections would be about 3,250,000.
In the 14 September elections, some 2,400,000 citizens actually voted.
At the outset of the vote counting, unfortunately the OSCE technical staff did not utilize the 3,250,000 figure. Rather, it used an estimate of only 2,900,000 eligible voters drawn from a United Nations document that focused on refugees, not voters per se. The OSCE Mission should not have used that document as a data base, since it suggests that over 600,000 were deceased since 1991, and we know this is simply not true.
I take full responsibility for the Mission's mistake in initially basing its calculations on this manifest under-estimation of the number of eligible voters.
At the same time, I would emphasize that OSCE has undertaken a most careful retabulation of the vote, even beyond the "final unofficial count" announced on 14 September, to be absolutely sure of the integrity of the process.