An emergency session of the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina is scheduled for today with one item on the agenda – the Draft Law on Amendments to the Election Law of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Proponents of the law are MPs from the Democratic Action Party – Šerif Špago, Šemsudin Dedić, Edin Ramić, Safet Kešo, Denijal Tulumović, Amor Mašović, Nermin Mandra and Midhat Čaušević, with a request for consideration under the urgent procedure.
The law envisages the integration of the electoral process and the introduction of new technologies in order to prevent possible electoral fraud – the introduction of electronic voter identification with fingerprints and optical reading of ballots. Also, it is foreseen that, with the aim of preventing the abuse of polling boards, the Central Election Commission of BiH will elect the polling boards through a public call, and that parties may have a maximum of one member.
Today’s session will be the last chance for the legislator to adopt changes to the electoral law and fulfill the request of High Representative Christian Schmidt, who called on parliamentarians to adopt the changes by the end of the year or he will impose them.
“If the local authorities do not find a solution, now, not in the next month, year, then I would consider saying, in the next two, three weeks, we cannot depend on promises, so this week, if it is not done, everyone knows that there is one person in the city who has the authority and authority to make such a decision. This is not interference in the work of the Parliament, but the strengthening of democracy,” said the high representative at the press conference.
On the eve of the Parliament session, a meeting was held between members of the Central Election Commission (CEC) of Bosnia and Herzegovina and representatives of party and delegate clubs in the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Serif Špago (SDA) said in a statement to journalists that the details of the proposed law were not discussed, but that his impression is that it will be supported by the majority of votes in the House of Representatives, although he is not optimistic about the support of the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats of BiH and the Croatian Democratic Union of BiH.
Saša Magazinović from the representative club of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) of Bosnia and Herzegovina, when asked about the position of the Troika on changes to the electoral legislation as proposed by the SDA, Magazinović points out that changes of this type were first initiated by the SDP, so “we cannot be against something that we ourselves proposed”.
Both Magazinović and Špago noted the CEC’s positive opinion on the planned full implementation of the amended law from the 2026 election, and did not want to prejudge whether the House of Representatives would support it, and the House of Peoples would possibly not.
Snježana Novaković Bursać, on behalf of the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, stated that the law proposed by the SDA is not acceptable, while for the Central Election Commission, she said that she had decided on her own initiative to regulate the most sensitive issues of the election process by rules and not by law.
In her opinion, SDA’s proposed law is an attempt by the proposer to appease ‘some centers’. The SNSD does not shy away from improving the electoral process, but does not want to support something that has already been non-transparently thought out and agreed upon in this area, said Novaković Bursać.
According to the press release of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly, members of the CEC said that after the decision on changes to the Election Law of BiH is made, they are ready to intensify activities on the introduction of new technologies for a more efficient, safer and more credible election process. They also said that after the adoption of the amendments to the BiH Election Law, a pilot project for the introduction of new technologies should be implemented at 165 polling stations in ten municipalities in BiH, which would be implemented on a voluntary basis.
