The Coalition for Free and Fair Elections “Pod lupom” announced the beginning of the campaign to introduce new technologies in the election process in BiH, on today’s press conference organised in the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The campaign to improve the election process of the Coalition “Pod lupom” will rely on the active participation of citizens of BiH regarding the request to introduce new technologies in the election process, by signing a civic petition throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina so to prevent election theft and fraud on Election Day, by introducing electronic voter identification and ballot scanning machines.
Today, more than 60 CSOs from all around BiH in more than 70 cities and municipalities will go to the streets to obtaine the support of citizens so to improve the election process. All citizens will have the opportunity to sign the petition on street stands to be organised in the next eight days (from December 15 to December 22).
We invite all citizens to approach street stands and sign the petition when they see our recognizable purple stands, because only together and with strong pressure imposed by citizens we will be able to make positive changes. – said Hasan Kamenjaković, PR of the Coalition “Pod lupom”.
A citizens’ petition to introduce new technologies can also be signed online via the link: https://podlupom.org/peticija/
Through its activities in the past seven years, the Coalition for Free and Fair Elections “Pod lupom” has been advocating for the improvement of the election process. During the work in the previous period, a large number of recommendations were proposed to improve the election process in BiH, one of which was accepted and implemented in the election legislation. However, for free and fair elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina, it is necessary to invest a lot of effort in order to talk about a successful election reform. One of the key recommendations of the Coalition “Pod lupom” for the improvement of the election process is the prevention of election theft and fraud on Election Day by introducing electronic voter identification and machines for scanning ballots.
Realizing the wideness pertaining to the introduction of new technologies in the election process and the complexity of this change, as well as the sluggishness in a proactive approach to improve the election process, we realized that it is necessary to directly involve citizens of BiH in the country and abroad in this campaign so to show to the competent institutions that citizens want change in this regard. That is why we decided to launch a public campaign to improve the election process, which includes signing a citizens’ petition, i.e., a direct form of democracy through expressing citizens’ demands. – said Dario Jovanović, Project Manager of the Coalition “Pod lupom”.
The introduction of new technologies would restore citizens’ trust in the elections, but also contribute to increasing transparency in the election process. In particular, the introduction of ballot scanners would not significantly change the way voters are accustomed to, but would prevent election fraud reflected in changing voting results through nullification votes for political opponents, voting instead of non-voters or fraudulent addition of personal votes. In addition, a better post-election analysis and the so-called election forensics by the election administration, observers and all participants in the election process would be provided. Depending on the technology used, it would be able to obtaine election results just few hours or minutes after closing of the polling stations.
Electronic voter identification would prevent abuses related to the identity of the voters, such as voting on behalf of another person, multiple voting and abuse of voting after clossing of the polling stations and also it would be possible to monitor voter turnout in real time.
Out of the 110 democracies in the world, over 50 have a biometric voter identification system, and over 40 have some form of new voting assistance technology. New technologies are especially important in countries with low confidence of citizens in elections because they can contribute to the prevention of election fraud on Election Day to a significant extent and increase public confidence in the election process.
The Coalition “Pod lupom” reminds that all the power lies just in the hands of the citizens of this country, and changes for the better are possible but only if citizens are actively involved.
