Will BiH finally get electronic voting – leaders of 5 parties prepared a solution together

SARAJevo, (Patria) - Bosnia and Herzegovina could soon get a new Election Law, which would provide for the introduction of so-called electronic voting, greater transparency at polling stations and scanners that would guarantee the accuracy of counting and the expressed will of voters. 

There have been several attempts so far, in the previous term, which were stopped by the ruling structures who do not benefit from fair elections, but this current attempt gives the most hope for success, as political parties from both BiH entities that have representatives in the BiH Parliament have worked on it together. 

In mid-January, leaders of Naša stranka, Nezavisni blok, PDP, SDP, and SDS met in the BiH Parliament and agreed to work on the principles of a law that will enable fair and honest elections in BiH and jointly propose it for parliamentary procedure. 

As we learn, the draft law has been prepared and a meeting of the leaders of these parties is expected in the coming days to definitively adopt it and send it for procedure. These are exclusively issues that address trust in the process on election day, preventing vote theft and altering the electoral will of voters. It is clear to everyone that the ruling structure maintains power in this way, and voters see this, which is why there are fewer and fewer of them at polling stations. 

“We will not open other issues in the Election Law on which we currently do not have consensus, we worked on this together, we are also in talks with some other parties and individuals, representatives and deputies in the BiH Parliament to support this solution, and I believe we will finally get it. 

Whoever is against this solution has clearly stated that they steal in elections and deceive their voters. And voters must recognize such people and punish them severely in the next elections. Support for our proposal has also been expressed by some other political parties that do not have their representatives at the BiH level, but operate at lower levels or have not participated in elections so far. Also, I believe that representatives of the EU and the international community will actively support the efforts of those forces in BiH who want genuine progress and a state of law in which our youth will stay and live,” said Senad Šepić, leader of Nezavisni blok and one of the deputies who, throughout the last term, actively worked and lobbied for BiH to get electronic voting and scanners at polling stations, in order to restore trust in the electoral process. 

The fact that this topic is indeed very active again is also indicated by the fact that the European Union Office in BiH has organized a meeting for today with representatives of all parliamentary parties in BiH, at which it wants to seek ways to resolve this issue. 

Does this mean that the international community will also clearly say enough is enough with distrust in the electoral process and that a change must be made, we will find out soon.