European Union Ambassador Soreca visits polling stations and Pod Lupom Call Centre

The Head of the EU Delegation and EU Special Representative to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ambassador Luigi Soreca paid a visit to two polling stations today as well as the Pod Lupom Call Centre.

During his visit to polling stations, he underlined the importance of using the right to vote. "Credible and fair elections with broad citizen participation, are essential for reinforcing democracy. Voting is a way to shape the future of your community and I encourage the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina not to miss this opportunity. Make sure that your vote is heard today," said Ambassador Soreca.

Ambassador Soreca started Election Day by visiting a polling station in Stari Grad, located in the Economics Faculty of Sarajevo University. This is one of 165 polling stations in 11 municipalities and cities that are a part of an EU funded pilot project supporting the Central Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina. New technologies and equipment will be used in the voting process to strengthen the integrity of the elections. Ambassador Soreca also visited a polling station in in the High School "June 28" in East New Sarajevo. In both polling stations, he spoke to the Chairs of the Polling Station Committees and had an opportunity to observe how the elections were organised.

The equipment used in the pilot project involves new voter identification and authentication methods such as confirming a voter's identity by scanning the barcode on the personal identification document and using fingerprint readers to compare biometric fingerprint data against records from the Agency for Identification Documents, Registers, and Data Exchange (IDDEEA). This process also includes electronic transmission of results from the polling station to the BiH Central Election Commission after completion of the manual count enabling faster election results.

"The European Union is strongly committed to assisting BiH to improve the integrity of the electoral process, which is also an important element of the EU path. The introduction of new technologies in the voting process is an important step forward towards preventing electoral irregularities and ensuring more reliable election results," said Ambassador Soreca.

Ambassador Soreca also visited the Call Centre of the Pod Lupom Coalition. The European Union continuously supports the work of civil society organisations that strengthen the integrity of the electoral process, foster active participation of citizens in advocacy and develop election monitoring capacities.

"Civil society organisations play an important role in promoting voter education, transparency and building capacities for election monitoring in line with international standards and best practices," underlined Ambassador Soreca.