On July 26, International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) published its first interim report of pre-election monitoring for October 8, 2016 elections. 

During the reporting period ISFED identified 2 cases of intimidation/harassment based on political affiliation, 3 cases of dismissal from work on alleged political grounds, 2 instances of violence, 2 cases of possible vote buying, 5 cases of participation of unauthorized individual in canvassing, and 2 cases of use of administrative resources.

The report also summerizes changes in local budgets in some municipalities and scaling up of social and infrastructural projects. Although the Election Code prohibits such changes within 60 days ahead of elections, activation of social campaigns and mobilization of budget funds for social projects lead us to believe that initiation or expansion of social projects in some municipalities has to do with the formal launch of the pre-election campaign. ISFED found 8 such cases during the reporting period.