In case that the House of Peoples of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH adopts the amendments to the Election Law that refer to the introduction of video surveillance and scanning of ballots at polling stations, our country would definitely make a step in the right direction when it comes to the transparency of the electoral process, which was a problem so far.
To recall, almost 9 million BAM was required for the implementation of general elections in 2014. Back then, there was a total of 5,400 polling stations all over BiH. According to the amendments to the law, the installation of a surveillance cameras at each polling station and a scanner for ballots are necessary. We will see how viable it will be in the financial sense.
However, the option of borrowing technical equipment in the form of scanners and video recorders was mentioned as well.
Technically, it is easy to do this if there is a political will.
State parliamentarians will be on a large test, especially if we take into consideration that the proposal to introduce transparent boxes to the polling stations was rejected right before the previous general elections (2014), for which estimated costs amounted to 950,000 BAM. Allegedly, there were no funds in the budget for this initiative, although it was initiated by the Central Election Commission of BiH.
“We should deal with the possibility of equipment procurement, whether buying or renting, as soon as possible. Part of the funds that are spent on a large number of observers and members of the electoral committees all over BiH should be directed on the purchase of this equipment. Thus, this problem would be solved and we should not let the ‘argumentation’ that there is no money to stop us from making this very important step forward for democratization and development of our country,” noted Sepic.
(Source: S. H./Klix.ba)
