CEC must appoint 12,000 polling station chairs and deputy chairs unaffiliated with political parties

(Patria) - CEC Chairperson Irena Hadžiabdić said at today's press conference that the local elections will cost 19 million BAM, and that they have already been allocated just over 7 million BAM. The elections will be held on October 6.

“We are still waiting for the approval of additional funds,” said Hadžiabdić.

The request has been submitted to the Ministry of Finance and Treasury of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and additional funds are needed due to the CEC's new obligations under the amendments to the Election Law of Bosnia and Herzegovina imposed by High Representative Christian Schmidt.

Speaking about deadlines, by May 24, political parties and independent candidates submit applications to participate in the elections. Certified candidate lists will be published by August 22.

The election campaign begins on September 6, and election silence begins on October 5.

Hadžiabdić said that apart from the ban on paid advertising, there is no premature campaign before the official start of the election campaign.

“From today until the confirmation of results, political entities, candidates, and election administration are prohibited from using hate speech, abusing children for political purposes, abusing public funds, using the position of head of an institution for candidate promotion, and promoting themselves at public events financed by public institutions,” said Hadžiabdić.

The CEC Chairperson said that scanning of ballots will also be tested, but that voting will still be done on paper by circling with a pencil, and that votes will be counted manually.

She called on all participants in the electoral process to refrain from violating the Election Law of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The CEC will implement four pilot projects in the local elections in several municipalities using equipment from the EU Delegation for scanning ballots and readers.

“This project entails implementation at 165 polling stations in about ten municipalities. In each municipality, we will select polling stations. We have made our plan, but it will be revised. Here we are doing voter identification via fingerprint and data transfer to the CEC. The second project is optical scanners; you pass your ballot through a scanner in about six municipalities. The third project is only for Brčko, biometric data at 137 locations. And finally, video surveillance, we plan in about ten municipalities. As for additional funds, the Election Law has provided that we can request additional funds,” said Hadžiabdić.

Speaking about the appointments of polling station committee chairs and deputy chairs who have no connection to political parties, Hadžiabdić said that a selection of people is underway and that training will be conducted.

“We believe that vote buying in polling committees will decrease. The other members of the polling committee who will come from political parties, their number has been reduced because only those parties that have capacity in councils and have registered for these elections can appoint them,” she said.