General elections will be held in Bosnia and Herzegovina tomorrow, where 3 million 408 thousand 517 voters will have the right to vote. 45,457 registered voters and 2,621 in 20 diplomatic and consular missions will be able to vote by mail.
These are the first elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina that will be conducted with the use of biometric voter identification and ballot scanners, and with the rapid transmission of election results.
There is a pre-election period of silence that lasts until the polls close tomorrow at 7 p.m.
More than 3.4 million voters in Bosnia and Herzegovina will elect 518 mandate holders for six levels of government tomorrow. The Central Election Commission of BiH accredited 2,432 observers. The CEC imposed a total of 750,000 marks in fines on political parties and candidates for violating the Election Law.
For the first time, election technologies are being used in the elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the introduction of which was followed by numerous challenges. Fingerprints are taken, ballots are scanned, but manual counting remains.
JOVAN KALABA, President of the CEC of Bosnia and Herzegovina
“We will have over 4,000 operators in the technical area at the polling stations and 500 field technicians to solve possible problems in the operation of devices for voter identification and scanning of ballots”.
There is also speculation about tomorrow’s possible attempts to disable scanners and voter identification devices at polling stations.
DARIO JOVANOVIĆ, project manager of the “Pod lupom” Coalition
“There is certain information that in certain areas an attempt will be made to disable the new technology device at the polling stations, that voters will be instructed not to use foil protection, to turn the ballots over, so that it is possible to see who they voted for, so that a member of the electoral committee who is a party member and is in charge of controlling the ballot box and the ballot box, could see who they are voting for, and to the extent that it is actually advised to use some kind of concealment of fingerprints, stickers or certain oils and the like so that they do not that technology worked”.
SUAD ARNAUTOVIĆ, member of the CEC of Bosnia and Herzegovina
“I would like to remind, and I ask that this be understood as a warning to those who might try something like that. The provisions of Article 155 of the Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which prohibits a prison sentence of six months to five years”.
In a conversation with citizens in municipalities and cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, representatives of the Association “Oštra nula” came to the conclusion that mostly pensioners and middle-aged citizens will vote, while there is a lack of interest among young people.
TAMARA MIŠČEVIĆ, Association of Citizens “Sharp Zero”
“Some believe that there will be some progress, that we won’t have all the possible malfeasance that BiH was known for, while others are apathetic, they’re not even sure what that election day will bring.”
Tomorrow, citizens with the right to vote will choose between 75 political parties and four independent candidates. For the ballot to be valid, the voter must color in the circle in front of one political party and the numbers of a maximum of three candidates from that party.
After voting, the voters insert the ballots into the scanner, and the candidate lists are returned to the members of the electoral committees.
