The conclusions adopted during the sessions are delivered to members of the Inter-Agency working groups, representatives and delegates of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina and members of the Central Election Commission. More about the conference you can find bellow.
Recommendations to improve the electoral process:
Priority recommendations:
To set forth that the president of the polling station committee has to be a non-partisan person with experience in election management or with good knowledge of electoral process, and that he/she is appointed by the local election commission;
To prevent exchange and potential trade of the seats on the polling station committees between the political subjects by publicly announcing names and last names of all members of polling station committees, and noting their political affiliation to the political subject that appointed them. It should be done immediately after their appointment to the polling station committee, and again at least ve days before the Election Day;
To introduce separate translucent ballot boxes for every level of authority for which the ballots are casted;
To lower the height of voting booths to the minimum height that guarantees secrecy of the vote;
To introduce obligation to annul elections at the polling stations where deficit/excess of ballot papers is determined;
To equalize the status of non-partisan observers with the international observers in terms of rights and obligations;
To enable non-partisan observers to file complaints;
To put all legislative preconditions in place and to enable the conduct of local elections in the City of Mostar;
To shorten all deadlines from the day elections are announced until the official and complete announcement of final election results (instead current 180 to 120 days);
To enable voters to scan his/her ballot papers at the polling station thereby preventing electoral manipulations and having the election results published faster.
For the legislature and election administration:
1. To start the process of developing and adopting the national Law on political organization; election campaign and election silence;
2. To prevent abuse of public resources for pre-election purposes by prohibiting ceremonies to mark the end and/or the beginning of public works financed from the public citizens’ budget during the election campaign and election silence;
3. To put all legislative preconditions in place and to enable the conduct of local elections in the City of Mostar;
4. To precisely determine responsibility for political subjects that engage in election campaigning before the official start of election campaign period;
5. To improve the system of controlling political parties’ financial management both in the election and non-election year by enhancing human and technical capacities of the BiH CEC’s Audit Office or by transferring the authority to the State Audit Offices;
6. To prevent exchange and potential trade of the seats on the polling station committees between the political subjects by publicly announcing names and last names of all members of polling station committees, and noting their political affiliation to the political subject that appointed them. It should be done immediately after their appointment to the polling station committee, and again at least five days before the Election Day;
7. To set forth by the law that, besides the polling station committees’ members, sanctions are to be pronounced to the political subjects that nominated the person to the polling station committee if it is found that provisions of the Election Law were violated under instruction of the political subject;
8. To set forth that the president of the polling station committee has to be a non-partisan person with experience in election management or with good knowledge of electoral process, and that he/she is appointed by the local election commission;
9. To equalize the status of non-partisan observers with the international observers in terms of rights and obligations;
10. To determine the deadline for issuing observer accreditation by election administration;
11. To enable non-partisan observers to file complaints;
12. To recognize in the BiH Election Law the situations when the electoral process is interrupted and establishing of the election results is not possible;
13. To set forth in the Election Law precise deadlines until when the decision on annulment of elections must be passed;
14. To envisage the notion of early elections with the four-year mandate;
15. To set forth in the Election Law when and under which conditions the mandates of previously elected and appointed officials end if the newly elected bodies of authority are not established within legally prescribed deadline;
16. To introduce a provision into the BiH Constitution and the BiH Election Law that would prevent abuse of national affiliation in the electoral process.
17. To ensure minimal representation of three constituent peoples, national minorities and the nationally undecided in the legislative government at the entity level and cantonal level in the FBiH, as well as in the representative bodies at the local level;
18. To adopt official consolidated version of the BiH Election Law.
In terms of the conduct of elections:
19. To shorten all deadlines from the day elections are announced until the official and complete announcement of final election results (instead current 180 to 120 days);
20. To strictly adhere to set deadlines for delivery of voting packages to by-mail voters;
21. To pay special attention to the criteria of competence and experience in electoral process when appointing and approving members of the local election commissions;
22. Use the implementing regulations to prevent abuse of by-mail voting;
23. To ensure continuous education of local election commissions aimed at increasing their work efficiency in the election period;
24. To introduce thorough changes and concrete improvements concerning training of the polling station committees’ members;
25. To sanction unjustified renouncement of the position on the polling station committee just before the Election Day by prohibiting future engagement in at least two election cycles; to set forth keeping of such records at the level of local election administration;
26. The BiH CEC should provide timely information on received complains and decision made thereon on its website;
Election Day:
27. To strictly adhere to provisions of the BiH Election Law and the provisions of implementation regulations that set forth the procedure of safeguarding the polling material at every polling station;
28. Strictly adhere to implementing regulations relating to the layout of the polling station, and to precisely dene sitting arrangement of the polling station committee’s members so that every member of the PSC has insight into the work of other members;
29. To introduce separate translucent ballot boxes for every level of authority for which the ballots are casted;
30. To lower the height of voting booths to the minimum height that guarantees secrecy of the vote;
31. To technically improve preparation of the copies of the aggregate results forms so the latter would be legible, and after all processes at the polling station are completed the copies should be openly displayed as prescribed;
32. To introduce obligation to annul elections at the polling stations where deficit/excess of ballot papers is determined;
33. To set forth stricter penalties for members of the polling station committees where discrepancies and/or disproportion is determined as the result of under-education or manipulations;
34. To enable voters to scan his/her ballot papers at the polling station thereby preventing electoral manipulations and having the election results published faster.
