News in English     | 13.08.2020. 12:26 |

Bakalar: We expect signing of the contract for ballots printing any day now

FENA Hana Imamović

SARAJEVO, August 13 (FENA) - After the Procurement Review Body of Bosnia and Herzegovina rejected the complaint against the selection of the company that will print the ballots for this year's local elections, the Attorney General's Office was asked for an opinion on the Framework Agreement between the Central Election Commission and the selected bidder.

The CEC President Željko Bakalar explained in an interview with FENA that the Attorney General's Office is expected to respond by the end of this week, after which the procedure for concluding a contract between the CEC and Unioninvestplastika Sarajevo, which won the bid, could begin.

The Procurement Review Body resolved the complaint filed by a group of bidders as soon as possible, which appealed against the decision of the CEC contracting authority on the selection of the most favorable bidder in the procurement of ballot printing and packaging services, and rejected it because it was submitted by an unauthorized applicant.

"Ballot printing takes place in stages. Firstly, we need to print the ballots that will be sent by mail to voters outside Bosnia and Herzegovina, which should happen at the end of September, and then they should be sent to overseas countries, and then to other countries," said Bakalar.

Once the obstacles are removed, Bakalar points out, the entire job should be completed on time.

The CEC President Željko Bakalar also referred to the issue of storage spaces in which it is not possible to put the election material if it is not emptied, and this was not done because the Prosecutor's Office of BiH ordered that the material from the 2018 General Elections be kept due to incumbent investigations.

The CEC has had the approval from the BiH Archives since February when it comes to regular procedures for destroying ballots from previous elections, the retention period being one year from the last elections.

"That means that they could have started with the destruction in 2019. Since some prosecutors stated that these materials are the subject of investigations, we sent letters to all prosecutors to see which materials precisely are the subject of the investigation," said Bakalar.

However, he added, they did not receive a detailed answer from the Prosecutor's Office of BiH about what should be saved, but the Prosecution asked the CEC in the letter to keep everything.

The president of the CEC emphasizes that it is not possible to do that because in that case, the CEC will not have operational storage space since we are talking about more than a hundred tons of material.

"Therefore, we have made a decision on the selected supplier that will do the destruction of ballots and we are still waiting for an answer on what needs to be saved from the materials. We sent inquiries to the Prosecutor's Office of BiH on several occasions," he pointed out.

The CEC received answers from some cantonal prosecutor's offices and they saved the material that may be the subject of investigations and will not destroy it, and if they receive an answer from the State Prosecutor's Office, they will save what they single out as the subject of investigation.

The CEC president believes that this year's local elections should be held as planned on November 15 throughout BiH and on December 20 in Mostar, unless some unforeseen situation arises regarding the coronavirus pandemic.

He says that the CEC is also considering how to conduct elections without endangering people's health and that certain normative acts have been adopted.

In cooperation with the BiH institutions, the CEC is trying to find a way to protect voters and the election administration during the election campaign, during and after the elections and the counting of votes.

"We have sent a request to the Ministry of Security and the Coordination Body to supplement BiH's request for international assistance in terms of donating certain protective equipment and disinfectants," says the president of the CEC BiH, Željko Bakalar. 

(FENA) S. R.

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