The Coalition for Free and Fair Elections “Pod lupom” has released a new episode of its informative and educational podcast “Election Compass”, focusing on one of the most frequently discussed elements of the electoral process — the Central Voters Register of Bosnia and Herzegovina (CVR).
In the conversation hosted by Hasan Kamenjaković, the guest of the episode is Dario Jovanović, Project Manager of the Coalition “Pod lupom”, who explains in detail what the CVR is, who administers it, how up to date it is, whether it is truly public, and discusses electoral irregularities associated with it.
The CVR, managed by the Central Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina (CEC BiH), represents a database of all citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina who have the right to vote. In public discourse, concerns are often raised about the fact that Bosnia and Herzegovina has around 3.2 million registered voters, while population estimates are around 3.1 million, which creates room for suspicion and potential manipulation. Jovanović explains the reasons behind the so-called “inflation” of the CVR.
Part of the explanation lies in the rules themselves and does not necessarily indicate abuse. Anyone who holds the citizenship of Bosnia and Herzegovina and is 18 years old, or will turn 18 by election day, will appear on the extract of the CVR in a municipality or city. As a result, people who do not live in Bosnia and Herzegovina are, de facto, included on the voters register. According to some estimates, this includes around 400,000 people living in the diaspora, which is currently in line with the law and existing regulations, Jovanović states.
However, problems arise when the voters register is abused. Jovanović recalls that for years there have been warnings about the presence of deceased persons on the voters register, and that in 2018 the CEC removed 5,500 deceased individuals from the list. He further explains that it is technically impossible to completely prevent a certain number of deceased persons from appearing on the register because it is finalized 45 days before election day.
The presence of deceased persons on the voters register is not a problem in itself, as long as their identities are not abused. The problem occurs when someone votes on their behalf, signs the CVR extracts, uses unused ballots and thereby falsifies results, committing electoral fraud by increasing the number of votes for a particular candidate and artificially inflating voter turnout, Jovanović emphasizes.
A particularly sensitive issue concerns the public accessibility of the CVR. Although the law stipulates that the CVR and its extracts are public, Jovanović argues that this is not the case in practice.
“The CVR is not public. I would even go a step further and say that it is deliberately hidden,” Jovanović points out. He adds that the intention of the legislator was to allow anyone to access the CVR extracts through a website, containing citizens’ data that do not constitute a violation of the Law on Personal Data Protection.
“We even have an opinion from the Agency stating that the CEC faces no obstacles in publishing the CVR in the manner prescribed by law,” Jovanović added.
Paradoxically, political subjects themselves have the right to obtain the voters register in an electronically processable format for the electoral units in which they are certified to participate in elections and have candidate lists.
“The Coalition ‘Pod lupom’, non-partisan observers and citizens do not have clear access to the CVR and the people listed in it, while political parties and politicians do — even though they are precisely the actors most frequently involved in abusing the voters register and are often the ones ordering or directly carrying out electoral fraud and vote theft,” says Jovanović.
The Coalition “Pod lupom” believes that publishing the CVR on the website of the CEC, in compliance with the Law on Personal Data Protection, would be a key step toward greater transparency and increased public trust in the electoral process.
One of the Coalition’s most important recommendations concerns the introduction of electronic voter identification. The use of fingerprint verification in combination with a valid identification document would prevent voting in someone else’s name and identity abuse, which would make the issue of the total number of voters almost irrelevant from the perspective of electoral fraud.
“You would no longer be able to artificially inflate turnout after 7:00 p.m. and use unused ballots, because you would not have people with fingerprints and valid documents,” Jovanović explains.
The Coalition additionally recommends periodic audits of the CVR, as well as regional cooperation and data exchange, in order to prevent the phenomenon of so-called “voting phalanxes” — situations in which the same individuals exercise their voting rights in multiple countries in the region, including Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro.
The new episode of the “Election Compass” podcast provides detailed explanations, concrete examples and clear recommendations for strengthening the integrity of the CVR and the overall electoral process in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Listen to the new episode of the Election Compass podcast on the Coalition “Pod lupom” YouTube channel.
The podcast is also available on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/5mENBRSBnoN94HYRwC5xw5?si=2iSfpJChTXuwi0bFBst9Hw
