IDDEEA

New technologies in local elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina at 10 percent of polling stations

 Local elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which will be held on Sunday, October 6, 2024, will feature new technology for voters at 458 polling stations in 24 basic electoral units. Technology will be employed at 165 polling stations for voter identification by fingerprint verification, also known as voter authentication and results transmission. Optical scanners and automatic counting of ballots will be used at 145 polling stations, while new technologies for biometric voter identification and voter authentication will be used in the Brčko District. Particular polling stations will also be monitored by video surveillance. In this approach, around 10% of voting locations throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina will be covered with new technologies.

The Agency for Identification Documents, Registers, and Data Exchange of Bosnia and Herzegovina (IDDEEA) provides technical support for the pilot projects of the Central Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina (CEC BiH) related to voter authentication and results transmission, as well as biometric voter identification and authentication. The European Union and the OSCE Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina provide financial support for these activities.

The European Commission in Bosnia and Herzegovina has been supporting the efforts of the Central Election Commission to introduce new technologies in some parts of the election process for a long time, and in previous years, the possibility of introducing new technologies was discussed at several conferences and working meetings. Furthermore, equipment from other manufacturers was showcased, and a portion of the equipment intended for deployment in Bosnia this year underwent testing in Georgia last year.

Furthermore, equipment from other manufacturers was showcased, and a portion of the equipment intended for deployment in Bosnia this year underwent testing in Georgia last year.
“Show that new technologies and everything that will be tested through these pilot projects are necessary for democracy to win,” is how the IDDEEA describes its hopes for this pilot project.

The goal of this pilot project, according to the IDDEEA, is to “show that new technologies and everything that will be tested through these pilot projects are necessary for democracy to win.”

To clarify, the implementation of these technologies would address the long-standing issue of a single voter possessing numerous identity cards. On the other hand, most European countries use digital technologies for some or all parts of the voting process.

But none of this would be possible without the good cooperation of the source authorities, the CEC of BiH, and IDDEEA. Namely, registry offices and MoIs are responsible for the accuracy of the original data that they submit to the IDDEEA, which is responsible for the overall technical processing of all data relevant to the Central Voters Register. The CEC of BiH creates the final Central Voters Register for the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina based on the registers that are technically kept and maintained by IDDEEA.

Voter authentication and result transmission will be used in the electoral units of Stari Grad Sarajevo, Tešanj, Doboj, Bijeljina, Trebinje, Gradiška, Goražde, Domaljevac-Šamac, Sanski Most and Zvornik, while biometric voter identification and voter authentication will be used in Brčko District of BiH at all polling stations.

“At polling stations where a pilot project called ‘Authentication of voters and transmission of results’ is carried out by the Central Election Commission of BiH with the financial support of the EU and with the technical support of IDDEEA BiH, apart from the regular procedure (which implies providing an identification document to a member of the electoral committee for identification), each voter is instructed by the operator to put the corresponding finger on the fingerprint reader, which, through the application, compares the fingerprint with the data stored on the device or with the database of the Agency for Identification Documents, Registers, and Data Exchange of Bosnia and Herzegovina. After authentication and identity confirmation, the voter is directed to the further voting procedure prescribed by Article 18 of the Rulebook on the Implementation of Elections,” explained in IDDEEA BiH.