Although the introduction of new technologies in elections is presented as a fait accompli, there are many unknowns in that process that no one has yet answered.
What will the ballot with new technologies look like, who will control the source code of the entire system, how will the votes be counted and who will control whether a ballot is valid or not, are only part of the questions that no one has an answer to.
For example, a ballot for the Assembly of the Canton of Sarajevo, on which there are several hundred names, cannot be scanned with “classic” scanners. The device that would eventually be made for the current look of the ballot would have to be huge, or on the other hand, the A4 ballot would have to be a meter long.
“We are brought to a wall. By intervening in the Election Law, we would have the possibility to reduce that ballot to a reasonable format. Without that, we would have long ballots and probably a problem in conducting elections on election day with the help of optical scanners,” said Željko Bakalar, a member of the CEC, earlier at one of the sessions of the CEC.
The election law stipulates that votes are counted manually
Furthermore, the Electoral Law stipulates that votes are counted manually, and there are no new technologies. For this reason, back in October of last year, the CEC submitted to the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina a proposal for changes to the Election Law of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but no one looked at it.
In the proposal for those changes, the CEC stated that after the polling station is closed, the operator, under the supervision of the president of the polling board, prints the final reports of the process of scanning ballots and automatic counting in triplicate. According to the CEC, the reports should contain the total number of used ballots, then the number of invalid ballots, then the number of valid ballots and the number of votes per political entity at all levels of government. The report should also include the number of votes per candidate within each political entity.
In its initiative, the CEC drew attention to the fact that the existing Election Law does not prescribe who and when can submit a request for a recount of ballots in the case of electronic counting of votes.
Control of valid or invalid votes
As for the actual control of valid or invalid votes, numerous questions arise here as well. The Election Law of Bosnia and Herzegovina clearly stipulates when the ballot is invalid, however the “machine”, at least in the places where new technologies were used, did not “register”.
“The law says, for example, that an invalid ballot is one that is signed, crossed out or something similar, but the scanner doesn’t recognize that. So, put an x in front of a name and then cross out the ballot, draw something on it and the scanner will process it as valid,” Željko Škondrić, president of the City Election Commission in Prijedor, told “Nezavisne novine” earlier.
The source code is a separate problem
The source code of the entire system is a separate problem. In essence, it is a code that “controls” the entire election process. If this code is owned by the companies that applied for the tender, it may represent a “security problem”, and if this code is assigned to the CEC, unofficial information says that the CEC does not have the staff and capacity to manage it and possibly develop it further as needed.
New electoral technologies
As a reminder, new election technologies have been talked about for years. Under pressure from politics, and to a large extent from CEC members, Kristijan Šmit imposed changes to the Election Law of BiH, which enables the introduction of new technologies into the election process. Later, Šmit imposed another decision and provided 112.5 million KM, after which the CEC announced a tender for the procurement of new technologies.
That tender was announced last year, and bids were opened on February 2, however, to date, the most favorable bidder has not been selected. The CEC recently told us that the committee reviews the bids and that after that the CEC will make a decision. According to unofficial information, appeals against the CEC’s decision on the selection of the most favorable bidder can only be expected after that decision, so even the most optimistic are less and less likely to believe that elections with new technologies will be held in 2026.
Bids for the tender were submitted by four bidders
As a reminder, four bidders submitted their bids for the tender. The company “Provis” from Bijeljina offered to do the entire job for KM 104,110,500 plus VAT, within 180 days with an extended warranty of five years. The offer was submitted by a group of bidders led by the company “Planet Soft” from Banja Luka with a price of 57,707,261 KM. Their delivery period is 90 days and the extended warranty, as an element of the most economically advantageous offer, amounts to five years.
The company “Artco Group” from Sarajevo submitted an offer of 79,791,281 KM excluding VAT. The delivery time of this provider is 170 days, and the extended warranty is five years.
“Smartmatic” from Sarajevo submitted an offer for 82.8 million KM without VAT with a delivery period of 139 days. This bidder gave a discount on this price of 8.2 million KM, so the total price of the offer is 74.5 million KM.
