Reform of electoral legislation necessary
The President and members of the BiH Central Election Commission held today an online meeting with Ambassador Johann Sattler, Head of the European Union Delegation and EU Special Representative in BiH, Valentin Inzko, High Representative of the International Community in BiH, Ambassador Kathleen Kavalec, Head of the OSCE Mission to BiH, and Eric Nelson, US Ambassador to BiH.
The ambassadors commended the work and efforts made by the Central Election Commission of BiH in the conduct of the 2020 Local Elections under extremely difficult circumstances.
The BiH Central Election Commission was exposed to political attacks, where political leaders carried out reprehensible attacks even on individual members of the institution. There is still clear opposition to any attempts to undermine the legitimacy of the BiH Central Election Commission as an institution.
The interlocutors discussed the reform of the BiH Election Law as well as establishment and beginning of the work of the Interdepartmental Working Group for Amendments to the BiH Election Law, i.e. the participation of representatives of the BiH Central Election Commission in its work. It was concluded that the involvement of the Central Election Commission of BiH in the work on electoral reform is extremely important. The role of the Central Election Commission of BiH in the electoral reform, as an implementing body, as well as due to its experience in the organization and the conduct of elections, can only contribute to the quality of created legislative solutions.
Also, it was emphasized at the meeting that visible problems in the electoral system cannot be solved only by the work of the Central Election Commission of BiH. The electoral reform process is needed to bring BiH closer to European standards and to provide new tools to mitigate fraud and improve electoral function. The meeting also discussed concrete solutions in amending the law, in terms of changing the composition of polling stations, strengthening the provisions on campaign financing and amending bylaws, improving the accuracy and speed of ballot count, increasing the accuracy of the Central Voters’ Register and adding legal provisions to include technologies in the electoral process, which can greatly improve the transparency of the 2022 Elections.
Members of the Central Election Commission of BiH informed the ambassadors about the active work of the institution on creating proposals for amendments to the Election Law of BiH, which will be offered in order to implement reforms to improve the electoral system in BiH and bring it closer to European standards. After its finalization, the proposal will be presented to representatives of the international community, ODIHR, Venice Commission, as well as the academic community in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the NGO sector and the general public in BiH, and it will contain solutions from ODIHR / GRECO recommendations.