In an interview with Fena, a member of the Central Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina (CEC BiH), Suad Arnautović said the system established in 1996, when the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina organized elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina, needs significant upgrades.
“First, the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina must automatically register citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina eligible to vote who are voting from abroad. This is a so-called passive registration, based on official records maintained by the state,” Arnautović said.
He added that it is one of the key steps that need to be made in the future, after the formation of the new government.
“Second, voters outside Bosnia and Herzegovina who vote via mail should deliver that mail to the nearest diplomatic-consular representation (DCR) of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the receiving country. That diplomatic-consular representation sends those envelopes to the Central Election Commission in Sarajevo via diplomatic mail. This would eliminate, so to speak, the torture of citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina living outside the country, so they no longer have to send envelopes and cover the shipping costs to Sarajevo,” Arnautović believes.
He also stated that the budget of Bosnia and Herzegovina should allocate funds to cover postal expenses for voters in the diaspora, to relieve them of the mailing costs they currently incur.
“Also, embassies and consulates of Bosnia and Herzegovina, namely the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, must establish official records of voters voting outside Bosnia and Herzegovina, a constant official registry, and take an active role in informing and educating them about the electoral process in Bosnia and Herzegovina,” Arnautović stated.
According to him, the success of that activity should be one of the key elements in evaluating the overall performance of the ambassador, consul or consulate.
“Everything I said applies, of course, to the actions of the future government structures following the elections in October 2026. The next important, strategic question is the issue of dual citizenship, because the current provision in both the Constitution, under Article 1.7d), and the Election Law, under Article 1.5 of the Election Law, creates a series of contradictions in practice. It is incomprehensible that our member of the Presidency, the president of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, can vote for the president of another, neighboring country. That is an incomprehensible situation that exists nowhere in the world,” Arnautović said.
Therefore, he added, this constitutional and legal solution must undergo significant amendments and be aligned with constitutional principles and international standards. He believes that “this anomaly in the election system must be corrected and aligned with international standards, including the rule of no representation without taxation.”
“In other words, it is not possible to have voting rights in a state where you do not pay taxes. So, these are some strategic matters that the new convocation of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the new convocation of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina should discuss,” Arnautović said.
Speaking about the interest of the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina in diaspora in this year’s General Elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina, he said that the Central Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina, within its jurisdiction, has taken all measures to inform and educate voters who are voting outside of Bosnia and Herzegovina regarding their rights.
“Unfortunately, we saw that those numbers do not reflect the actual size of our diaspora. We can best see this through the organization of these groups that followed the World Cup in football, where we saw how very well-organized the diaspora is in that context.t Something similar could happen in the future with their inclusion in the electoral process in Bosnia and Herzegovina. There are several reasons, and I emphasized them several times before. Therefore, there should be a more active role by political entities, above all, who should compete for the votes of electors voting outside Bosnia and Herzegovina, but the state as well needs to be far better organized,” Arnautović believes.
He said that what comes first is the duty of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Central Election Commission to join forces and increase activities aimed, above all, at informing our voters. When our voter is well-informed, then his participation in the electoral process will follow.
“To repeat, during voting in our embassies and consulates, new specific electoral technologies will not be applied, but that process of scanning documents and ballots will be conducted at the Main Counting Center in Sarajevo,” Arnautović said.
In the upcoming General Elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 48,078 voters have been registered to vote from abroad, 45,457 by mail, and 2, 621 in diplomatic-consular representations (DCRs). A total of 5,259 voters did not meet the registration requirements for voting outside Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Regarding voting in diplomatic-consular representations (DCRs), voting is planned to take place across 20 DCRs in 13 countries.
The highest numbers of voters registered to vote at a diplomatic-consular representation (DCR) are in Munich- 434 voters- followed by Vienna (266), Amman (199), Berlin (186), etc.
When it comes to the neighboring countries, there are 59 registered voters at the DCR Zagreb, 46 in Rijeka, and 51 in Belgrade.
The Central Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina states that organizing elections in the diplomatic consular representations requires a minimum of 50 registered voters, noting that the Central Election Commission can make an exception if that number is close to 50 and if technical and other prerequisites for organizing elections at the DCRs are met.
Ballots from voters who vote by mail and at diplomatic-consular representations are counted at the Main Counting Center.
