A sandwich, a ticket and a fictitious address: The story of people who went from Bosnia and Herzegovina to vote in Serbia

Back surgery in 1999 and a short visit in 2022 are what connect a man born in Ruda in the east of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the capital of Serbia - Belgrade.

In his case, this was enough to vote in Belgrade in the elections held on December 17, when the citizens of Serbia voted for the local government in Belgrade, the Assembly of Serbia and the local government.

"I told them on election day - don't leave me here. Now (Belgrade) is a metropolis, unlike when I lived longer," says this employee of a public institution in Ruda, which is financed by funds from the budget of the entity of Bosnia - Republika Srpska.

He also admitted that he voted for the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) in the elections in Serbia.

For almost half an hour, he spoke to Radio Free Europe (REL), as he said, "the living truth" about the details of the vote in Belgrade, where at least five buses from several cities of Republika Srpska went to an arena (Shtark Arena ) in Belgrade on election day.

In addition to Ruda, the buses also transported voters from Foça, Visegrad, Novo Gorazhde and Cajniqi, said one of the transporters.

"I voted for the first time in Belgrade and I would vote again"

REL's interlocutor, a civil servant in Ruda, who did not want to publish his name and surname, said that he has had the Serbian identity card with residence in Belgrade for a year and a half.

He said that he also has a Bosnian identity card with residence in Ruda, although the laws of Serbia and those of Bosnia and Herzegovina do not provide for the possibility of dual citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia having two residences.

He emphasized that he received it because "several people came to Ruda and brought documents".

"We filled out the papers. Then we went to Belgrade, filled out some papers and registered. Now there is some fraud there, but it's not fraud, because we were given the opportunity to register at an address", he explained the procedure by which he got the identity card.

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He says that he has never lived in Belgrade or in Serbia.

"A man waited for us, 10 or 15 people (in Belgrade) and registered us at his address", he explained how he got the identity card based on a fictitious residence in the capital of Serbia.

Asked if he knows "his address" in Belgrade, he said that he does and for a moment wanted to share it with REL, but then changed his mind, because "I don't want anyone to have problems".

"I mean, there will definitely be problems", he said, because "the flow of people from Bonja to Belgrade has become very large".

"What happened in the Arena was only their fault, I also told them - let me talk to them [journalists in front of the Arena]. Let the journalist come with me to the polling station, let him see that I have an ID card", he said.

Leaflets with information about voting centers were distributed in the Arena

The employee of a public institution in Ruda said that he is grateful to the organizers who provided him with transportation to vote, but he regrets what happened in the Arena.

For him, it was a mistake and they turned out to be "criminals".

"We didn't even know we were going to the Arena, someone made a mistake that five buses came to the Arena, so we got in but we couldn't get out, they took pictures, they took pictures of the buses a hundred times", he says what election day looked like in the Arena and around.

He denied that anyone had voted in the Arena, but leaflets were distributed there with the address where they will vote.

He indicated that he voted at the Technical School "Drvo art" at the address of Car Dushan 23 in Stari Grad.

"Now it is another thing that the cars have taken us to those locations. But they could have given us those papers on the bus as well", said this resident of Rudo, who receives his salary from the budget of the municipality in Republika Srpska, headed by the chairman who comes from the governing Union of Social Democrats of Independent (SNSD) Milorad Dodik, president of Republika Srpska.

During the election day, REL journalists saw at least five vehicles with the signs of the insurance company "T&M Group Solutions" in front of the Arena, as well as a group of men without insurance signs, who prevented them from entering the hall.

The Mayor of Ruda Municipality, Dragolub Bogdanovic, from SNSD, did not want to talk to REL.

The municipality emphasizes that it does not know the details of the organized transport of local residents to vote in Belgrade.

Who paid and who transported the voters from Bosnia and Herzegovina?

The residents of Ruda in Belgrade have used the bus company "In Turs" from this place.

The director of the company, Marko Novaković, told Radio Free Europe that a private person ordered the transport, namely two vehicles – a bus and a minibus.

"We have transported the citizens, about 22 or 23 of them. I have not organized anything. It was in some cities and some people hired us to transport people there," Novakovic said, adding that he has not yet been paid for the transport services.

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He said that he voted in Priboj, Serbia, because he has an identity card from this city, but he personally took the voters from Ruda to the capital of Serbia.

He emphasized that it is a secret who was the private person who ordered the transport to Belgrade, but when asked if it was someone from the SNSD party, he said:

"Well, you see Dodik next to Vucic [Aleksandr, president of Serbia]. Everything is clear. Why haven't you seen Triviq [Jelena Triviq from the opposition Popular Front party in RS]?" said Novakovic, who is the chairman of the Municipal Committee of the Popular Front Party.

He also said that he knows the person who ordered the transport from before and that he is from Republika Srpska.

He emphasized that there were no motives, apart from financial ones, to bring people to Serbia for elections.

"Xillasi did not bring us to Belgrade"

The employee of the public institution in Ruda said that in Belgrade he voted for both the local government and the Serbian parliament.

- "I mean, we are not children. Therefore, they took us there, for the sake of Belgrade".

REL: Were they afraid of losing Belgrade?

- "Of course. We know all about it."

Asked if he knew who organized the transport, he said he didn't care.

"It was not Xillas [Dragan, opposition Party of Freedom and Justice in Serbia] who brought us to vote in Belgrade."

He also said that "the phones were working" months before the elections.

On election day, in addition to transportation, they were given a sandwich and a bottle of water.

The opposition coalition "Serbia against violence", as well as 20 civil society organizations, demanded a repeat of the elections in Serbia due to suspicions of electoral fraud and irregularities.

During one of the opposition protests held in Belgrade, the police arrested 30 protesters and used tear gas to disperse them, while the opposition accused the government of violence. /rel/