As the general elections approach, the political scene in BiH is increasingly entering the pre-election phase. Instead of reforms and concrete moves, the institutions are blocked. In such an atmosphere, citizens increasingly express doubt that the election process will be fair and transparent, especially due to new delays in the procurement of modern election technology. There is also the Electoral Law, which foresees the introduction of new technologies, and which, due to the blockade of the House of Peoples, has been in the drawer for months.
The biggest reason for doubts are additional obstructions in the process of procurement of electoral technology. The introduction of biometric identification of voters and scanning of ballots should have been a key step forward in the fight against election manipulation. However, now everything is on hold again. The Central Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina chose the Smartmatic company as the most favorable bidder for the purchase of equipment worth about 74 million marks. But soon after that, complaints arrived at the CEC’s address. Due to the complaints, the CEC had to forward the complete documentation to the Complaints Review Office, which will decide whether any of the bidders have been harmed. Until then – the whole process stands still. And time is running out.
“We have in the procedure amendments to the law in this sense, but as far as I can see, for now there is not enough political will to come up with such a law, I really can’t guess what will happen about it, but if we don’t manage to do it before the general elections this year, I think that it is illusory to organize any elections here because those who have eaten until now will win and nothing will come of it,” said Zlatko Miletić, a delegate in the Club of Croats in the House of Peoples PSBiH.
Delegate Džemal Smajić has a similar attitude, who warns that without the political will of the ruling party there is nothing to modernize elections, and he shifts the responsibility to the high representative, who points out:
“There is a great responsibility here on the high representative, who needs to solve everything. It is true that he has already taken several steps, positive steps in that direction, and I hope that he will not give up and that he will see it through to the end in order to have as fair and correct elections as possible, which would represent the real will of the citizens.”
However, the question is whether Christian Schmidt will react again. The public is increasingly talking about his possible departure, which further complicates the situation. The opposition from the Republika Srpska, which has been accusing the SNSD of serious election malpractices, places special hope in technology.
“I really want to believe that we will have at least somewhat fair elections in October, otherwise everything really becomes meaningless. It is clear what is at stake here. So the people from SNSD and HDZ want to maintain a monopoly over the kind of election process that suits them completely, which is contaminated to the core”, Želimir Nešković, a delegate in the Club of Serbs in DN PSBiH (SDS).
“I am convinced that this work will be completed and that the obstructions that we have been witnessing for a long time and those of a political nature that were both through Parlamnet and through the Council of Ministers, but also the latter, which concern the delaying of the process at the Appeals Agency, will not succeed,” explains Nenad Vuković, a delegate in the Club of Serbs in the DN PSBiH (PDP).
If the scanners do not arrive on time, Bosnia and Herzegovina will not only lose the technology – but also the last chance to restore confidence in the elections. In a country where suspicion has become the rule, election technology should have been the solution. For now, she seems to have become another problem.
The procurement plan includes almost 6,000 biometric voter identification devices and the same number of ballot scanners.
