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SARAJEVO, October 8 (FENA) - Observers of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe are the only international mission that was overseeing the cantonal level elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Head of the Mission of the Congress Stewart Dickson said today in Sarajevo that the election day went on fairly well, and that the elections were very well prepared.
Dickson said that they came at the invitation of the Central Election Commission (CEC) of BiH to observe the cantonal level elections, and that they focused only on that level. Yesterday, there were 18 observers coming from 17 countries who visited 150 polling stations.
They were able to go to the main counting center, so they saw the new technology that was applied during these elections.
"I can say that the Election Day went on just fine, and that the elections were very well prepared," Dickson said.
He noted that, when it comes to practical organization, they saw certain inconsistencies in their work, citing an example that they had a problem determining to which party the members of the polling boards belong to, whom they represented which was a bit inconvenient.
He added that the lists were available at the entry to the rooms themselves, so they could see who the members were, but in only a few cases, besides the name, there was also information about the political party which the person came from.
Dickson says they have noticed that in some cases there has been assisted voting, which they think is not appropriate and not a good thing.
"We believe there is room for improvement in terms of making the voting procedure a more private thing, and that is something that can be improved," he said.
Another problem that they noticed is that board members read out the first name and the last name of the person who came to vote.
“Certain board members were able to see who voted and who did not. They heard their names. This constitutes a certain obstacle to privacy in voting. So in that whole atmosphere that was burdened with the allegations of buying votes, that citizens are under pressure, this is an element we consider frustrating when citizens are still exposed to hearing their names read out loud,” stressed Dickson.
Observers also noticed that the voters took quite a long time a long time to vote, so that caused queues.
“In addition to the cantonal, we had the general elections and this is the level that is of great importance for the whole country, so that the general elections in fact over shadow the cantonal elections because they are held on the same day. When we consider all the competencies of the cantons within the Federation of BiH and the role that the cantons play in a very complicated system and the way institutions work in BiH, our firm belief is that the cantonal elections should take place separately. It should not take place on the same day as the general elections, but rather they should be held together with local elections,” underlined Dickson.
He added that they believe that this would give the proper and even more important role to the cantons, that this would be justified and that the citizens could be more informed in a timely manner about everything.
“When we take into account the competencies of the cantons and municipalities, we think that this change would be very important for the development and encouragement of local democracy. We are firm in our belief that the cantonal and general elections should be separated, so that at regional level this should be discussed and further improved,” Dickson said.
He noted that, in addition to the observer role, they had the opportunity to provide assistance and to see what political parties, NGOs and citizens in Mostar did during the election process. They believe that the separation of cantonal and general elections would also be of great importance for the situation in Mostar.
“This would increase the confidence of citizens in the institutions and political parties. It is always our concern if there is low turnout, and this would encourage citizens and increase their trust in the institutions,” Dickson concluded.
(FENA) S. R.
