OHR Welcomes Decision by Brcko District Political Parties and Independent Candidates to Sign Pledge of Conduct for Upcoming October Elections

The OHR welcomes yesterday’s decision by representatives of all political parties and independent candidates running in the upcoming District elections in October to sign a pledge of conduct committing themselves and their supporters to a standard of conduct during the pre-election campaign.

Brcko Supervisor Susan R. Johnson, who addressed the parties as they signed the pledge in a ceremony held yesterday evening, congratulated those present. “All the parties represented here have signaled that your campaigns will be ones of substance and that, rather than basing campaigns on negative slogans and attacks on other parties and candidates, you will focus on those issues which matter most to the residents of Brcko District,” said Supervisor Johnson.

Mayor of Brcko Mr. Branko Damjanac also welcomed the initiative of the parties in agreeing to a standard of behavior during the campaign, stating: “It is now up to the parties and independent candidates to keep their commitment to the citizens of Brcko District to conduct the campaign in a fair, non-violent and democratic manner”.  He also noted that there would be a media campaign to promote the Pledge because it is very important that citizens know about the Pledge and the commitments made by the parties for their conduct during the pre-election campaign.

The drafting of the Pledge was facilitated by the Brcko office of the National Democratic Institute, a group that has conducted similar exercises throughout the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.  “The District Elections in October mark the first time citizens of Brcko will be voting for their own representatives, as the Assembly and Government moves from an appointed status to an elected one.  Because of this, it is critical that these elections are properly run, to inspire confidence amongst the people of the District that after the elections their elected representatives can continue the successes of Brcko, while at the same time responding to the many pressing and urgent problems that still exist in the District,” the Resident Director of NDI, Mr. Peter Dimitroff, emphasized.

The political parties and independent candidates who have committed to the Pledge are the following:

Brčko Democratic Party	Party of Democratic Centre
Democratic People’s Union	Social-democratic Party
Democratic Party RS	Serb Democratic Party
Croatian Democratic Union	Social-democratic Union of BiH
Croatian Party of Right BiH	Union of Independant Social-democrats
Croatian Pesants’ Party	Serb Renewal Movement
Liberal Democratic Party	Socialist Party of RS
New Croatian Initiative	Pensioners’ Party of BiH
Party of Democratic Progress	Serb Radical Union dr. Vojislav Šešelj
Party of Economic Progress	Serbian Radical Party
Party for BiH	Anto Pranjkić
Party of Democratic Action	Ševalija Tanjić