The introduction of biometric technology at polling stations will prevent almost all ways of stealing votes on election day, as well as during the counting of votes.
Therefore, it is not surprising the long-term resistance of the parties in power, and their numerous attempts to stop the financing of new technology and delay the start of its application.
How things will look in practice, Dario Jovanović from the Under Scrutiny Coalition explains for “Dnevni avaz”. The coalition has been monitoring elections since 2014, and since then has documented a number of ways in which parties steal votes, for which the Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina prescribes penalties of up to five years in prison.
Identity theft
Back in 2016, we requested the introduction of this technology because we noticed numerous ways of stealing votes, says Jovanović. The government has been postponing it for years, he adds, even though we have collected 100,000 signatures on a petition for the introduction of biometrics, while research shows that 80 percent of BiH citizens want it.
– Identity theft works by party manipulators voting in the name of deceased persons, or persons who do not vote for some reason – explains Jovanović. The new technology means that citizens will scan their fingerprint and ID card, driver’s license or passport before voting.
They will be able to vote only when the system confirms the voter’s identity by comparing the document and the print. That way, no one will be able to vote on behalf of another person, but only on their own, he explains.
Manipulation of slips
Along with biometric scanners for voter identification, scanners of ballots after voting are also crucial, says Jovanović. This will solve the problem of writing votes on unused ballots after polling stations are closed, which is a frequent occurrence during elections.
– Thus unused slips become unusable for manipulators, because the scanners will not recognize a slip that is not related to a person who has gone through the identification process – explains Jovanović.
He adds that the manipulators will not be able to write on the competitor’s ballots, in order to make them invalid, because the ballots have already been scanned during the voting.
Count accuracy
Instead of weeks of counting votes, the technology will allow voting results to be available in a central system in just 93 seconds after the polls close.
In addition, digital vote counting will prevent wrong counting in favor of one’s own and to the detriment of other parties.
Obstructions
It is clear that the authorities are obstructing this technology because it knocks out of their hands the mechanisms that have ensured electoral victory for years. Jovanović points out that a difference of only four percent of votes, obtained by election theft, often decides the winner of the elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Therefore, parties see technology as an obstacle to staying in power, not progress.
Specifically, the Central Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina received money for the procurement of new election technologies by the decision of Schmidt from July of the previous year, and then these funds were included in the budget for 2025.
Amidžić then tried to use the fact that the funds were part of the budget for 2025 as an excuse not to allow the CEC to withdraw them this year, which is why the CEC sent a letter to the Ministry of Finance and Treasury of BiH, where they stated that they needed the money by February 19, he writes Daily avaz.
