The government of the United States of America is investing USD 500,000 to support the Central Election Commission (CEC) in the implementation of a pilot project for the application of new electoral technologies in the municipal elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina in October 2024.
The goal is to prepare Bosnia and Herzegovina for the full application of this technology in the general elections of 2026.
The initiative is part of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) project Supporting Electoral Integrity in Bosnia and Herzegovina (USAID SEI), the implementation of which began in October 2023 as support for electoral reforms that will bring the electoral system of Bosnia and Herzegovina into line with international standards and best democratic practices, announced is from USAID.
“We are committed to supporting free, fair and transparent elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina, so that the votes of all citizens have equal value when electing their officials and thereby further strengthen Bosnia and Herzegovina’s path to EU membership,” said Courtney Chubb, director of the USAID Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“The new technologies we are introducing will allow voters in BiH to experience a voting process similar to the one they are used to, but with a reduced possibility of error and fraud during vote counting and better integrity of the election process as a whole,” Chubb added.
The pilot project will test the use of optical scanners that directly transmit voting results from 145 polling stations in Bosnia and Herzegovina. municipalities of Vogošća, Tuzla, Visoko, Stolac, Novi Grad and Prijedor. The locations were selected by USAID and the CEC in order to ensure a statistically relevant sample of municipalities and polling stations that demographically and politically reflect Bosnia and Herzegovina. The scanner is supplied by Smartmatic, an election technology company.
This project is the result of many years of advocacy and implementation of the key recommendations of the Pod Lupom coalition, which are a reflection of the wishes of the voters in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Observers of the Pod Lupom coalition, which consists of domestic civil society organizations, will be present at all polling stations where the project is implemented and will undergo special training for observation and reporting.
“Pod Lupom has long recognized and promotes the benefits of using new technologies in elections in BiH. I think we have the preconditions for the fairest elections in BiH so far,” said Dario Jovanović, president of the coalition.
The introduction of the new technology is part of USAID’s four-year, $5.5 million project that supports election integrity. In addition to the pilot project, USAID SEI will provide broad support to electoral authorities in the process of organizing and conducting elections, including strategic planning, capacity building, training on electoral processes, and informing and raising the level of voter awareness. It will also support the civil society involved in the observation process by providing innovative open source digital tools in partnership with the Pod Lupom coalition.
