Elect Mostar

TagsElect Mostar, LDAMostar, Local Elections

Encouraged by the fact that local elections were not held in Mostar for many years, and that its citizens were therefore denied the right to vote as well as the right to run in local elections, Local Democracy Agency Mostar came up with an idea in 2016, as part of the “Youth Take Over” project activity, to organize an action called “Elect Mostar”. This “ad hoc” action, which involved organizing “fictitious local elections” on the day of real local elections in the rest of Bosnia and Herzegovina, was supported by Mostar CSO’s dealing with youth issues: the Youth Council of Mostar, OKC Abrasevic, Association of young psychologists and Youth Power. The goal was to restore the basic democratic right of the citizens of Mostar to vote and to be elected. The action was extremely covered by local and regional media, and noticed by the international community and foreign missions in BiH. The lack of reaction was evident when it came to political actors and leading political options in BiH.

Over time, this initiative grew into a Coalition ”Elect Mostar”, and became a platform that spread the voice of disenfranchised citizens through its activities. In the period from 2016 to 2020, our activities were recognized at the national and international level, especially by the Council of Europe, which resulted in a series of meetings with the Coalition. Encouraged by all the above, the Council of Europe decided to establish a Reflection Group for Mostar, and through the work of the Reflection Group, and based on a series of consultations with the Coalition in 2021 began implementing the project “Building democratic participation in the City of Mostar”.

Four years after the creation of our initiative ”Elect Mostar”, the citizens of Mostar have finally regained their active and passive suffrage.

List of our activities set in chronological order:

ELECT MOSTAR

– 33rd session of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of CoE , October 18-20 , 2017

–Council of Europe’s Congress examines the situation in Mostar, October 19, 2017

-Reflection Group on Mostar formally established on 26 March 2018

Series of meetings between the Coalition Elect Mostar and Delegation of Council of Europe resulting with the idea of establishing the Citizens’ Assembly in Mostar.

-Meeting 1 – 25.-26.05.2017.

–Meeting 2 – 26.06.2018.

-Meeting 3 – 20.09.2018.

-Meeting 4 – 27.11.2019.

Local Elections in Mostar and further developments