NO SESSION YET Amendments to the Election Law of BiH on introducing new technologies into the election process must also pass the House of Peoples of the BiH PA

(Patria) - Amendments to the Election Law of BiH introducing new election technologies in the next General Elections, specifying the ballot paper design, and enabling the Central Election Commission to adopt the Rulebook on the internal organization of the CEC, given the months-long standstill in the Council of Ministers of BiH, were adopted at the session of the House of Representatives of the BiH PA on Friday, December 12.

A conclusion was also adopted to send the law to the House of Peoples of the BiH PA with a request for urgent consideration.

The continuation of the 20th urgent session of the House of Peoples of the BiH PA is scheduled for next week, December 17, but there is still no information on when a new session of this house might be held.

Given that the Christmas and New Year holidays are approaching, there is not much time left for the law to be adopted this year.

The Central Election Commission of BiH stated in its address to the leadership and all caucuses of representatives and caucuses of delegates in both houses of the BiH PA that BiH is introducing the use of specific technologies in the election process for the first time, for which funds in the amount of 112,500,000 KM have been allocated.

"Considering the huge funds allocated to preserve the integrity of the election process, it is necessary to adopt a norm that would adapt the ballot paper design for the effective use of specific election technologies," they stated in the letter.

The CEC notes that without the adoption of amendments to the Election Law, the functional introduction of new election technologies is not possible, especially from the aspect of the form and content of the ballot paper.

The CEC is conducting a public procurement of a system for biometric identification of voters and for scanning ballot papers at polling stations, which is being carried out through an Open Procedure (international payment class) for submitting bids, which envisages concluding a contract for a period of four years with one bidder.

However, for the new technologies to be used at all in the next General Elections, it is necessary to change the Election Law that enables this.