Cvijanovic Warns OSCE Ahead of Bosnia's Oct. 4 Vote
Serb Presidency member Zeljka Cvijanovic met the head of the OSCE observer mission in Banja Luka to raise concerns about new voting technology before Bosnia's October 4 general election.
Zeljka Cvijanovic, the Serb member and current chair of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s tripartite Presidency, met today in Banja Luka with Tana de Zulueta, head of the OSCE Election Observation Mission, six weeks before Bosnia’s general election on October 4. For Belgrade and for the Serb population of Republika Srpska, the meeting carries concrete weight: Cvijanovic represents the Serb people within the Presidency, and how the election is run will directly shape how loudly Republika Srpska’s voice is heard in Sarajevo over the next term.
During the meeting, Cvijanovic raised serious objections to the timing and manner of introducing new technology into the voting process, noting that it is being rolled out in an election year, while the electoral process is already underway. She said this raises questions about legality, transparency, the readiness of the election administration, and the protection of the secret ballot.
“Technological solutions cannot be an end in themselves, nor may they endanger basic electoral principles,” Cvijanovic said after the meeting with the OSCE mission chief.
The Serb Presidency member added that she supports modernizing the electoral process, but said it must not come at the expense of the secrecy of the vote, the ability to verify the voting procedure, or the protection of voters’ freely expressed will.
In the October 4 general election, Republika Srpska will elect a president, two vice presidents and members of its National Assembly, while ten cantons of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina will elect members of their cantonal assemblies. The Central Voters’ Register lists 3,414,364 voters, of whom 48,074 are registered to vote from abroad, either by mail or through diplomatic and consular missions. Seventy-five political parties, 29 coalitions and four independent candidates are competing for various levels of government, with an electoral threshold of 3 percent.
The diaspora, despite everything, remains on the margins of this election cycle. According to Bosnia’s Ministry for Human Rights and Refugees, 1,677,177 people born in Bosnia and Herzegovina live abroad, and when second and third generations are included, the number of people of Bosnian descent worldwide is estimated at around two million. Against that figure, 48,074 registered voters abroad shows how little of the diaspora’s political potential outside Bosnia’s borders is actually being used.
Why this is happening now
The push to introduce new voting technology comes alongside a broader assessment from the European Union that concrete results in accession talks are expected from institutions in Sarajevo even after October 4. The European Council already gave the green light in March 2024 to open negotiations and called on the European Commission to prepare a negotiating framework, so the new authorities’ ability to carry out reforms is being watched as a test of Bosnia’s European prospects as well. It is in that context that Cvijanovic’s objection carries extra weight: she is not questioning modernization itself, but the timing and manner of its rollout, in the middle of an election year and without giving the administration time to prepare for it.
For Republika Srpska, the reliability of the electoral process is a particularly sensitive issue, since any doubt about voting technology or ballot secrecy directly affects voters’ trust, from Banja Luka to Bijeljina, in the legitimacy of Bosnia’s institutions. Cvijanovic’s message to the OSCE mission, that modernization cannot be an end in itself, is not merely a technical objection but also a political signal to the international community ahead of an election that, according to analysts tracking the process, will decide not just who wins, but whether Bosnia will emerge after October 4 with a government capable of carrying out the reforms Brussels is asking for.
Tana de Zulueta, head of the OSCE observer mission, continues preparations to monitor the election in the coming weeks. Her mission’s final assessment of how the new technology performs and whether electoral principles were respected will come only after October 4, once the first results are in.
