The Ambassador of Greece was recently invited to Bosnia and Herzegovina for a meeting focused on improving joint cooperation in the field of digitalisation and joining projects with the Digital Europe Programme.
This meeting discussed how to drive advancements to digital services and strengthen public service capabilities by applicating modern technology in public administration. Naturally, it raised the efforts to deploy biometric technologies for the first time during the upcoming general elections on October 4, specifically in terms of biometric voter identification and ballot scanners.
The Election Commission confirmed the investment in these technologies earlier this month, saying it aims to “strengthen electoral integrity”, transparency and security in faster vote counting and much improved data collection. For context, biometrics will be implemented at regular polling stations across the country as 3.41 million voters have been registered since May 6.
The electoral process in Bosnia and Herzegovina has modernised with apt tools over the years to encourage the digital participation of voters. In 2020, 2022, and again in 2024, the Commission in partnership with UNFPA upgraded a viber chatbot to deliver real-time messages to voters, in particular young voters, about the electoral process.
And during the 2024 local elections, 10% of polling stations piloted fingerprint verification, optical scanners, biometric identification, and video surveillance. Facilitating digital systems that encourage more to demonstrate their democratic right to vote, the IDDEEA provided technical support for these pilot projects of the Central Election Commission.
Hence, on her recent visit, H.E. Ioanna Efthymiadou, Greece’s Ambassador, emphasised the crucial role that IDDEEA plays in the “process of digitalisation and modernisation of the institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, including the importance of the Agency in the implementation of modern technological and biometric solutions”. This enables a more efficient and transparent process by biometrically authenticating and identifying the voter and transmitting the results from the election.
She said that the projects undertaken by IDDEEA represent a “significant contribution to the European path of Bosnia and Herzegovina”.
Whilst there’s no electronic voting portal for young people, the Bosnia and Herzegovina Ministry of Justice and agencies are committed to improving transparency and “openness” to all citizens – even launching the web platform eKonsultacije, developed with the support of the project, Capacity building of government institutions to participate in dialogue with civil society (CBGI), which was funded by the European Union.
Prof. Dr. Almir Badnjević, hosted the Ambassador of Greece to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Her Excellency Ioanna Efthymiadou, at the Agency’s headquarters in Banja Luka.
