After the Coalition for Free and Fair Elections “Pod lupom ” conducted a civic, non-partisan observation mission of the election process/cycle of the 2022 General Election, observing the entire election process from the day the elections were announced until the confirmation of the election results, the last elections in BiH were evaluated as partly irregular. This rating is the result of all recorded irregularities, especially pressure on voters and abuse of public resources during the pre-election period, and numerous discrepancies in the election results, which seriously undermined the integrity of the election process. Trust of the public in the election process, it seems, has never been lower. Also, the fact that observed irregularities and violations of the Election Law of BiH were left without a timely institutional reaction and adequate sanctions also contributes to the public’s general dissatisfaction with the elections.
The observation mission of the Coalition “Pod lupom” assessed that the Election Day on October 2, 2022, in the largest number of polling stations, has passed in accordance with the BiH Election Law and by-laws. It has also been spotted that some segments of the election process have improved significantly compared to previous election cycles, which is largely the result of the implementation of 14 recommendations of the Coalition “Pod lupom” only for these elections, i.e., a series of technical improvements in the voting process on Election Day. Compared to previous election cycles, there were fewer cases of abuse of voting assistance and family voting.
One of the recommendations of the Coalition “Pod lupom”, after the civic, non-partisan observation of the 2016 Local Elections, related to the transparency of the electoral law protection process in the sense that objections and complaints are timely published on the website of the Central Election Commission of BiH (CEC BiH), which was implemented during the last election cycle. It is certainly a step forward in transparency and public involvement in this segment of the electoral process. In order for the electoral right protection segment to be fully opened to the public, it is necessary to think in the direction of improving the publication of information about received objections and complaints in such a way as to create and publish a database based on the principles of “open data”, in accordance with positive regulations and which will contain these regulations in their original form, along with accompanying decisions explaining how to act in accordance with these regulations. The existing database, i.e., the publication of information on objections and complaints, should be expanded so to include objections sent to the election commissions of basic electoral units. This is also one of the recommendations of the Coalition “Pod lupom” after observing the electoral cycle of the 2022 General Elections.
The analysis of objections and complaints to the election process of the 2022 General Elections focuses on the objections and complaints filed in connection with the organization and implementation of the election cycle of the 2022 General Elections. The data of the Central Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina (CEC BiH) published on the official website were used, as well as the data of the Coalition “Pod lupom”, especially in the segment related to reports pertaining to violations of the Election Law of BiH and implementing acts of the CEC BiH, which the Coalition “Pod lupom” has spotted during its work. The aim of the analysis is to present in one place the number and type of objections by segment of the electoral process.