GLOBAL ELECTIONS DAY
Sarajevo, February 06, 2014 –The BiH Central Election Commission has today in Sarajevo organized an event under motto „Increasing participation of young people and women in democratic processes through elections“. In this way the BiH Central Election Commission promotes the initiative of the Association of European Election Officials (ACEEEO) to have first Thursday in February proclaimed as the Global Elections Day by the UN General Assembly.
In his speech the President of the BiH Central Election Commission Mr. Stjepan Mikić, among other things, said that the position of women and young in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the context of their role, rights and obligations, keeps the pace with the democratic processes of the whole society and that even through good legislative solutions are in place, they are yet to yield practical results. Mr. Mikić also presented some statistical indicators according to which women turnout at the elections is below 50% and varies from 47.6% in 2004 up to 49.3% in 2012. Even though steady growth in women’s turnout is evident, this percentage can always be much higher, stressed Mr. Mikić
Besides women there is another social category that plays an extremely important role in improvement of democratic processes, and these are the young people. Young people represent future of every society and have the key role and power for change. Their voice is important and they represent a significant part of the electorate, said Mr. Mikić.
Other key note speakers at the promotion were: dr. Milorad Živković, speaker of the House of Representatives of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly; dr. Dragan Čović, Deputy Speaker of the House of People of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly; Ambassador H.E. Fletcher Burton, Head of the OSCE Mission to BiH, Mr. Thomas Busch, Head of Political Office of the EU Delegation and Mr. Adnan Kadribašić, Gender Equality Agency of BiH.
Beside international and domestic officials today’s promotion was attended by representatives of election administration from BiH cities/municipalities, senior high school students, faculty students and representatives of the non-governmental sector.