In all previous election cycles in BiH, a large number of irregularities and electoral manipulations occurred, which resulted in the questionable integrity of the elections and the loss of citizens’ confidence in the elections. Significant improvements to the electoral process in Bosnia and Herzegovina are necessary, with the aim to provide free and fair elections as well as to provide the results of the elections to be a real reflection of the voters’ will.
Since 2014, after every election, the Coalition “Pod lupom” has been submitting a series of recommendations to the competent institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina for the improvement of the electoral process. In the previous 9 years, limited but insufficient progress has been achieved in improving elections and protecting voters’ votes. In total, 26 recommendations of the Coalition “Pod lupom” for better elections have been implemented, partially or fully, which is somewhat encouraging, but many essential recommendations that would prevent electoral fraud and theft are still pending. First of all, electronic identification of voters and scanners for ballots, which was supported by almost 100,000 citizens from all around BiH through a citizens’ petition that was submitted to the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH.
A similar situation pertaining to recommendations of the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), which have been submitted to the institutions of BiH since 2010, the importance of which is reflected in the fact that these are one of the 14 priorities contained in the Opinion of the European Commission on BiH’s request for membership in EU. It is allarming that of the 22 recommendations that were given for the 2018 General Elections in BiH, not a single recommendation was fully implemented, 2 recommendations were mostly implemented, 11 were partially implemented, while 9 recommendations were not implemented. Citizens still have high expectations when it comes to the implementation of the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and the Constitutional Court of BiH, through which constitutional discrimination of citizens, based on ethnicity and residence, has been proven.
The Coalition “Pod lupom” calls on the authorities of Bosnia and Herzegovina to implement a serious and inclusive electoral reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina within the next 10 months, until the next local elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in accordance with their competences. This includes, among other things, implementation the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights and the Constitutional Court of BiH, the recommendations of the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and the priority recommendations of the Coalition “Pod lupom”, with an emphasis to introduce new technologies into the electoral process in BiH.
It is important to emphasize that electoral reform must not be a matter of political competition, but a joint effort of all relevant stakeholders. Only through an inclusive approach, which includes all stakeholders, a better electoral system can be built reflecting democratic standards and interests of all citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
