Mayoral Candidate Banned from Ballot for Using Porn in Campaign
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@MiradHadziahmet/Twitter(ZENICA, Bosnia) — A candidate for mayor in a Bosnian city was thrown off the ballot Friday for spicing up his campaign by including porn on his website.
Mirad Hadziahmetovic vowed to appeal the ruling.
“The electoral commission ordered I remove adult (R-rated clips) within three hours, so I did it,” Hadziahmetovic told ABC News. “I will appeal tomorrow. We will know the outcome by Wednesday or Thursday.”
He also considers his unorthodox tactic a success.
“I made a name for myself with this provocative campaign and now people do know about my mayoral program,” he said.
Hadziahmetovic, 43, an independent mayoral candidate in the Muslim dominated town of Zenica in central Bosnia, uploaded several porn clips to his official website in hopes of bringing in some traffic.
Visitors to Hadziahmetovic’s site were asked to answer a few questions about Zenica’s economy and public policies and verify their age. One example: “What is more important for Zenica, job creation or increasing the municipal budget through taxes?”
After answering Hadziahmetovic’s questions, they could then open the erotica. And following every explicit clip, Hadziahmetovic appeared on camera saying, “If you liked this clip, vote for me.”
Hadziahmetovic’s site crashed under the traffic generated by thousands of eager viewers when it first went live last week, although it’s not clear whether the enthusiastic response was an endorsement of his municipal policies.
But Bosnia’s electoral commission did not like it and banned his candidacy saying in a statement Friday that he “violated Bosnia’s electoral law by publishing pornographic photos and video clips during the electoral campaign.”
Hadziahmetovic, who was born a Muslim but says he is an atheist, is a businessman and a rookie politician. He told ABC News that his tactic was meant to be “provocative.”
“I guess people like it,” he said shortly before the electoral commission made its ruling, adding that because of his web site “electoral participation would go up greatly.”
Lustful advertising was not the only unorthodox ingredient in his campaign. His political slogans were unconventional, particularly for this overwhelmingly Muslim city with a reputation of one of the most religious places in Bosnia. “Tehran or Hollywood?” one ad asks, adding, “The choice is yours! “
Zenica is the fifth largest city in Bosnia with a population of more than 90,000 people. The election will take place on Oct. 7.
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio