At the initiative and with the support of the Delegation of the European Union to Bosnia and Herzegovina the Coalition “Pod lupom” had organized a series of online discussions with the civil society organizations on the electoral reforms as to additionally open the process towards the public and create a space for the organizations to express their views about the current topics. The discussions were organized under “STEP” project, which is financed by the European Union.
The objective of the discussions is to provide space for the civil society in BiH where it can openly, without any influences, present its views, thoughts and opinions on electoral reform in BiH. These discussions are continuation of the activities to improve electoral legislation in BiH. The conclusions of the online discussions should be primarily used by the decision-makers in the process of adopting changes and amendments to the BiH Election Law.
The civil society organization that participated in the online discussions on the electoral reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina agree that every reform, particularly the constitutional reform, must involve a wide range of stakeholders: relevant institutions, political entities, academia, civil society organizations, media, and citizens in any way it would be possible, entailing inclusiveness and transparency of the process, unbiased media reporting, etc. Two parallel processes that are currently existing in terms of electoral reform – implementation of the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights and the domestic courts on one side, and “operative-technical”, but rather essential amendments to the BiH Election Law that will enable more free and fairer elections on the other side, should neither be merged nor should they be conditioned to run in parallel and simultaneously.
The Coalition “Pod lupom” has developed a questionnaire for the representatives of the CSOs as to obtain opinions of the civil society organizations (CSO) on the electoral reform and the current situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). The questionnaire has showed that the civil society organization believe that improvement of the electoral process must be addressed, where 75% of them find the elections in BiH to be neither free nor fair. Economy was underscored as the first priority that the BiH authorities must address, followed by the fight against corruption and improving the justice system – as to respond primarily to the exceptionally pronounced corruption and perception thereof, while constitutional and electoral reform have taken fourth place on the list of priorities.
It is interesting to point out that when it comes to the process of amending and improving the BiH Election Law the CSOs’ representatives expect the most from the state level authorities, executive and legislative, the BiH Central Election Commission and the political party leaders. Unfortunately, the opinion that improvement will happen by the 2020 General Elections or that a comprise about the implementation of courts’ decision will be struck is relatively pessimistic as the largest number i.e. almost half of the respondents (48%) believe that it will happen, but only if international community is to exercise strong pressure. It is quite encouraging that 92% of the respondents believe that civil society organizations can influence this process, but only if they act together, in a coordinated manner and create pressure in the public to have the changes materialize.
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