First of all, the voting and counting system itself is outdated. Manual voting and manual counting of votes, filling in the forms are more like the situation from Kafka’s “Process” than the elections in a modern state that aspires to membership in the European Union. Any initiative to introduce electronic voting and counting was rejected in the BiH Parliamentary Assembly, although such initiatives are strongly supported by the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina and a significant number of petitions have been launched so far.
On the other hand, local election boards are mostly made up of people nominated by parties. Exceptions are members of local election boards appointed by municipal election committees, and they can only do so in cases where political parties nominate an insufficient number of members or the nominees do not show up for training or pass the test.
Members of municipal election committees, who are the direct implementers of elections, are hired through competitions, but in practice the composition of the committees is agreed by the parties that make up the majority in the municipal council and the positions of election committees members are part of the political cake. As a result, the irregularities that occur are often caused by their incompetence.
There is also a need for tighter control over campaign funds, especially over “black funds” that, in a way, have most of the “serious political parties”. It’s a public secret. The Central Election Committee and judicial institutions often do not have the courage to face this problem, and the reason for that is the same – they are appointed and elected politically. Of course, there is also the abuse of institutions and public companies that the parties use for pre-election purposes. This applies in particular to the use of the infrastructure of institutions and public companies, as well as to illegal employment and illegal provision of services for political and electoral gain.
Furthermore, it is necessary to legislate to ensure greater equality of party and non-party candidates in the elections. One part of equality would be achieved by preventing all these abuses, and the other part by finding ways for non-party candidates to parry party ones in financial terms. This is difficult to achieve because a large number of parties do not respect the restrictions in spending funds and at least one part is not shown at all, and the penalties for that even in cases when irregularities are proven are minor and negligible. The high fees that non-party candidates have to pay to run are just another mechanism to discourage citizens from acting outside established political parties, which runs counter to the democratic principles we declaratively advocate.
Finally, the abuse of the electoral will of the citizens, which more or less all parties do, should be prevented, and that refers to the fictitious candidacy of already elected representatives at a higher or lower level, who after the election reject the new position and remain in the old one and the only goal of that candidacy is to attract votes and that is to manipulate the electoral will of the citizens.
Abuses of shortcomings in the electoral process undermine the democratic will of the citizens and thus, in general, democracy in Bosnia and Herzegovina. We should not expect politicians and political parties to be well-meaning and moral, because, in the end, the purpose of every political party is to come to power – and we know that Western Balkan politicians are Machiavellians on this issue. By putting pressure on our representatives in the parliaments, we must provide a legal framework that will prevent these manipulations, and this is contained in the 14 key priorities of the European Commission for Bosnia and Herzegovina.
