Whether the October elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina will be postponed is becoming an increasingly loud question among the public, while at the same time it is being warned that without the introduction of modern technologies, there is no guarantee for a transparent election process.
Despite the interventions of the High Representative Christian Schmidt, the disputes related to the amendments to the Election Law of BiH continue to open up dilemmas about the timely holding of elections. The Central Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina awarded the job of procurement of new election technologies to the company Smartmatic, but there is still a deadline and opportunity for the companies to appeal.
Certain political parties, such as the HDZ in 1990, have already said that the elections should be postponed until the introduction of new technologies.
In a country that is known for “voting the dead”, as a result of numerous electoral manipulations, this way would be an improvement.
Vehid Šehić, a former member of the Central Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina and president of the Strategic Committee of the “Under Scrutiny” Coalition, believes that biometric identification of voters is necessary.
“It is important that the introduction of scanners will prevent the actions taken by unscrupulous members of the polling boards to very often cancel valid ballots if, in their opinion, because their political rival got it, unused ballots were used…” he pointed out.
Choose the safest, not only the most favorable bidder
When it comes to the bidder, Šehić says that they should also offer the highest security of the election process for multiple levels of protection to prevent hacker attacks on election day itself.
The new technology, he adds, will enable us to provide very fast unofficial preliminary election results. Despite proposals to postpone the elections, Šehić says he sees no reason for such a scenario.
“There is a danger that we may not have new technologies on election day itself. It depends on the speed of selecting the most favorable bidders for the procurement of all that equipment, but the CEC will do that work,” he notes.
Šehić emphasizes that it is important to choose the safest and not only the most favorable bidder. When asked about the possibility of postponing the election, Šehić says that everything must be done in accordance with the BiH Election Law. The reason may be extraordinary circumstances, such as major natural disasters. If that were to happen, the elections would have to be held within seven days at the earliest and within 30 days at the latest from the date of the decision to postpone the elections.
He reminds us of numerous obstructions, from the indication of money to the account of the CEC to the signature of the competent minister.
“This is proof, for anyone who observes realistically, that some parties do not benefit from the introduction of new technologies”, concluded Šehić.
Pandora’s box opened
Dario Jovanović, director of the “Under Scrutiny” Coalition, which oversees the elections, told Klix.ba that for the past three election cycles, they have been under constant threats and pressure to postpone the elections, which has happened on several occasions.
“It seems to me that we have opened Pandora’s box precisely because the elections were not always held in previous election cycles on the first Sunday in October,” he said.
However, he underlines, these are not normal situations and circumstances where everyone, in the way he likes, for political reasons or because he has instruments of power, calls into question the holding of elections.
He points out that it is possible for the elections to be postponed this time as well, which is possible due to the impossibility or obstructions related to the financing of the elections themselves or due to technical impossibility to carry out everything on time.
However, Jovanović underlines the necessity of introducing new technologies, and the citizens from the petition from 2022 have the same determination, when more than 100,000 of them declared for the same. Also, according to the latest public opinion survey, 83 percent of citizens support this.
“There are almost no statistical differences between ethnic groups, places of residence, and equally Bosniaks, Serbs, Croats, people in the RS and FBiH want to see new technologies and that’s what everyone wants to vote for,” he notes.
According to Jovanović, the pilot projects with new technologies were successfully evaluated.
“Most of it is on the backs of the bidders”
Jovanović says he believes that elections will be held in October in all 5,400 polling stations in the country. However, it is a prerequisite that the appeal procedure for the selection of the bidder is resolved positively as soon as possible. He believes that it will be resolved in the next month.
He explained that the tender is very specific and prescribes a number of tasks that bidders must perform. it is not only about the production of equipment, software customization of equipment, but also about the design of ballots, printing of ballots, delivery and storage of that equipment…
He concludes that most of it will actually be “on the backs” of the bidders, that is, on the company that will deliver the equipment, and not on the election administration, he writes. Klix.
