Politics

EXCLUSIVE: Voting Tech Disaster Risked Forcing Bosnia To Redo Elections In Just Seven Days, Official Said

Håkan Dahlström/Wikimedia Commons

SARAJEVO, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA — Despite issues at polling stations stemming from Bosnia’s nationwide debut of biometric voter checks and ballot scanners, one of the Balkan country’s most politically consequential elections in years successfully concluded.

The ruling political party, the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD), won, potentially paving the way for the creation of a new Christian nation in Europe. Although the election has concluded, the Central Election Commission was considering annulling the results due to major technical difficulties. Here’s what happened under the hood as electoral officials struggled to wrangle the new voting machine technology which ran into major technological hurdles throughout Sunday.

Though the technology was introduced specifically in the Balkan country to combat election irregularities and organized voter manipulation, technical problems emerged almost immediately after polls opened, according to The Associated Press (AP). The election even risked having to be reconducted in a week, a member of the Central Election Commission, Dr. Irena Hadžiabdić, told the Daily Caller News Foundation in an exclusive interview before voting concluded. Hadžiabdić has been a member of the Central Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina since 2007.

The DCNF was on the ground in Banja Luka and Sarajevo documenting the election after spending days covering the political battle leading into the vote.

“There are ways to correct serious problems we had at several polling stations, and in that case we always can annul elections and repeat them in seven days,” Hadžiabdić told the DCNF. “But we have to take this decision a little bit later.”

“I’m, at the moment, in [the nation’s second-largest city,] Banja Luka. My voting place was in Banja Luka, so I’m one of the witnesses. So I was queuing for two hours and [a] half in one of the schools [sic],” Ana Trišić-Babić, who served as Bosnia and Herzegovina’s deputy minister of foreign affairs from 2007 to 2015, told the DCNF before voting concluded. “The scan machines, they were blocking [sic]. Then they were going out as crazy, trying to find technicians, [but] no technicians.”

At the time of writing, it remained unknown if the voting machines will work properly.

“Now we are all waiting,” Hadžiabdić continued. “What will happen after 7 o’clock when we close … most of the polling station[s]? Will these machine[s] work properly and actually be able to transmit all these results that we are waiting for?”

Multiple sources told the DCNF that lines to vote were quickly stretching to last several hours throughout the day. Hadžiabdić spun the issue as proof people are excited to get out and vote.

“I know that sometimes they’re queuing,” Hadžiabdić told the DCNF. “If we always have a queue, if people are interested in elections, I am begging them when I speak publicly during the day to be patient, and we tell them the queuing is sometimes good for democracy. That means that people would like to vote, and we would like to have this increased turnout.”

Multiple polling places could not open voting on time due to problems with the new digital technology, AP reported. Bosnia’s Central Election Commission ultimately said polling stations affected by technical delays would remain open beyond the normal 7 p.m. closing time.

“So it took me literally two hours and [a] half to go,” Trišić-Babić told the DCNF. “Then they were taking out chairs, going out, as you know. It’s not a pleasant situation. Also, to all these people who are running that process, they … didn’t have enough time, probably, to educate, and then they went out at one moment and said, ‘We don’t know what to do. We need to temporarily stop voting.’”

The delays were particularly pronounced in the Serb-majority Republika Srpska. Of the major internal political entity’s 1,957 polling stations, 201 experienced delays, AP reported, citing Republika Srpska’s Interior Ministry.

Turnout was also sharply lower than during the previous national election. Roughly 27% of eligible voters had cast ballots by 3 p.m., compared with 35% at the same point during the 2022 election, AP reported, citing the Central Election Commission.

Former Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik, the president of the ruling political party, the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD), has remained in the center of the campaign despite being barred from holding office following his confrontation with Bosnia’s former international high representative, Christian Schmidt, and subsequent court conviction.

While insisting that any separation from Bosnia should occur peacefully, Dodik called on President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin — both of whom he is friendly with — to support an independent Republika Srpska during an exclusive pre-election interview with the DCNF. His governing SNSD remains a dominant force in Republika Srpska as voters decide the entity’s political direction.

“We belong to that club of nations who can say we are glad that today Donald Trump is the president of the United States,” Dodik told the DCNF during the interview in the presidential palace in Banja Luka. “And we wish him a lot of success in all his future victories. And that is why I would like to invite the people in the United States to vote again in favor of the Trump team, particularly now in these elections for Congress members.”

Dodik has made a point of emphasizing his support for Trump, presumably hoping the leader of the free world will reciprocate support for his push to hold a referendum after the election.

“We never hesitated to support him and his policies,” Dodik told the DCNF. “And then in the second campaign, due to the election theft by the Biden team, they did not cheat just on him; they cheated on the rest of the world. And we were really glad to see him coming back to power.”

Authorities introduced electronic voter identification and ballot scanners this year in an attempt to prevent irregularities that previously raised questions about the fairness of Bosnian elections, Hadžiabdić told the DCNF.

The problems came just two days after the Central Election Commission announced the technical requirements needed to deploy the new system had been fulfilled. The Commission also said the election would mark the country’s first nationwide use of biometric voter identification, ballot scanners, and rapid electronic transmission of election results.

Bosnia spent heavily on its election infrastructure’s transition. The Commission in May signed a contract with a vendor group led by Smartmatic BH worth roughly 74.5 million convertible marks — about $43 million — for biometric identification equipment, ballot scanners, software, technical support, ballot printing, and distribution, according to the Central Election Commission.

The technology had been tested before Election Day, achieving a 97.37% success rate for fingerprint voter verification in September. The Commission also said the equipment and broader system functioned at a satisfactory level, although logistical problems prevented mock elections from taking place in 14 of 143 municipalities and cities, according to the Central Election Commission.

The breakdowns arose amidst an election already surrounded by questions about Bosnia’s political future.

More than 3.4 million registered voters were eligible to choose members of Bosnia’s three-person collective presidency, national lawmakers, and officials governing the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as Republika Srpska, according to the Central Election Commission. The complicated political structure traces back to the U.S.-brokered Dayton Peace Agreement which ended the country’s bloody 1992-1995 war.

The voting technology was intended to remove another source of distrust from Bosnia’s deeply divided political system. Instead, its first nationwide test came with delays in polling station operations, temporary closures, and substantially lower afternoon turnout as election officials scrambled to keep voting underway.

“These machines maybe came here to the country a week ago, and nobody had the time to educate properly [the] people who were running that process as well: us who were supposed to vote today,” Hadžiabdić told the DCNF. “And the biggest fear, actually … is the software of that machine: is it owned by [the] local government or the company that delivered those machines?”

Editor’s note: This breaking news report was updated with the results of the election.