All packet materials with voting material from abroad that were delivered by the prescribed due date to the Central Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina (CEC BiH) are currently undergoing verification. After that, the CEC BiH will begin counting votes from voters who voted by mail in the General Election on October 4, as CEC BiH President Jovan Kalaba confirmed to Fena.
“All packets have arrived. They are currently undergoing verification, and counting will start soon,” Kalaba said.
The due date for receiving the voting material from abroad expired on Friday, October 9 – five days after holding the General Elections.
The CEC Member, Željko Bakalar, explained to Fena that all deliveries that arrived by that date to the CEC’s mailbox will be forwarded for further processing at the Main Counting Center.
He added that the rulebook prescribes that the election results be made public at least 20 days after holding the elections.
The Central Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina confirmed to Fena that ballots posted from abroad were arriving by the final legal deadline and that the preparation of statistical data on the number of received ballots is underway.
According to previously published data by CEC BiH, 48,074 voters were registered in this year’s General Elections outside Bosnia and Herzegovina. This number is confirmed by the decision of the Commission on July 30th, after considering the applications submitted via the electronic system e-Izbori and data on registering voters who are voting outside the country.
A total of 60,037 voters from abroad expressed interest in voting, as registered before the July 21st deadline. After reviewing applications and eligibility conditions, the final number of votes was entered into the extract from the Central Voters Register for Voting Outside Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The number of registered voters, however, does not represent the number of actual votes received, which will be known after processing the posts and completing the verification process.
Votes from the diaspora will be included in the total election results after conducting prescribed reviews and counting valid ballots in the Main Counting Center.
According to the deadline Bakalar mentioned, voting results should be known by at least October 24 – 20 days after holding the General Elections.
Votes from voters who exercised their right to vote outside Bosnia and Herzegovina could play a significant role in the final allocation of election results, especially in races where differences among candidates and political entities are small. Their impact could be particularly significant in Republika Srpska, where the possibility of changing the election results for the vice-president of this entity remains.
Additional votes could impact the allocation of seats in the National Assembly of Republika Srpska. Once out-of-country votes are included, it is not excluded that the Coalition for the State, consisting of pro-Bosnian parties, will receive another term.
Uncertainty also exists when it comes to individual cantonal assemblies and the House of Representatives of the Parliament of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, where relatively few additional votes could change the allocation of mandates. Such cases have been recorded during former election cycles, when votes that arrived from the diaspora were crucial for the ultimate ranking on certain cantonal election lists.
