In 1998, advisors of the International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES) from Washington DC assisted the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in its institution-building phase, leading to a more sustainable nationalized election system. This resulted in the establishment of the Association of Election Officials in Bosnia and Herzegovina (AEOBiH) in 1999. As of January 2000, sponsorship of the AEOBiH was taken over by USAID and has since been implemented through the IFES office in Sarajevo.

Today AEOBiH has over one thousand (1,000) members representing all three constituent peoples and nearly every municipality throughout the country. Its main goal is to provide an independent forum for exchange of information among election officials in Bosnia and Herzegovina and to contribute to the advancement of democracy in BiH by ensuring the fairness of and public confidence in the electoral process.

AEOBiH has a record of substantial accomplishments in numerous democracy and election activities it has been conducting since 2000. These programs include training of polling station committee members, voter information and education, voter registration and re-registration, and education of MEC members and political parties about various aspects of the BiH Election Law and election process through a series of roundtable meetings in AEOBiH sections throughout the country.

AEOBiH also made itself reputable through various professional development programs. These include the AEOBiH Elections Course, Conflict Resolution Course, and the Training on Media and Presentation Skills. Approximately 40% of the municipal election commissions in Bosnia and Herzegovina have gone through AEOBiH Election Course, which represents comprehensive training on all aspects of election administration and theory. One of the successes that also emerged out of these programs is a skilled, experienced and professional team of AEOBiH trainers fully capable of designing and conducting independent trainings in all democracy and elections-related issues.

Some members of this team have already created their own projects and conducted them under AEOBiH auspices during 2001. These included the program entitled “Democracy and Elections” for elementary and high school students, elections summer and winter camps for high school students from both BH entities, and education of political parties and local government officials about the basic provisions of the BiH Election Law.

AEOBiH is also engaged in current issues pertaining to the election administration in BiH. One example is the work of the AEOBiH Legal Council, whose members and legal experts were proposing solutions for the draft election law while it was still in the parliamentary procedure, and have since been involved in drafting sub-regulations to the law and submitting them to the Election Commission of BiH. Due largely to the dedication of the AEOBiH Legal Council, the AEOBiH has been recognized as an important actor in the BiH electoral arena and has thus been included in the proposed Federation Law on Nomination of the Bodies for Conduct of Elections as the consultative body for selecting Federation Election Commission members.

Thanks to its large and diversified membership, AEOBiH has succeeded in establishing and maintaining important contacts with public officials in government institutions. AEOBiH today has its members in institutions including the Constitutional Commission of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly, Parliament of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ministry of Justice of FBiH, Constitutional Court, and the Supreme Court of FBiH. In addition to that, a majority of AEOBiH members are presidents of municipal and cantonal courts throughout BiH.

The fact that AEOBiH has secured the access to government institutions through its members contributes greatly to our ability to lobby the public officials. With this in mind, selected AEOBiH members have been trained in public advocacy skills by American Development Foundation (ADF) and are currently designing a project whose goal will be to lobby the BiH government to adopt the law on funding of elections and election bodies in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

AEOBiH also cooperates with other NGOs and CSOs active in the field of democracy and elections. The closest cooperation has been established with the Center for Civic Initiatives (CCI), a local NGO dealing with civic observation of elections and civic education, and OSCE Democratization in Brčko. AEOBiH and CCI trainers worked together on various professional development programs for local and international election officials where they held joint presentations and lectures. In June 2002, AEOBiH also became a member of the NGO coalition “Elections 2002.” AEOBiH members held presentations on election law throughout BiH on behalf of the Coalition, and facilitated numerous public debates with citizens on various elections-related issues.

The above-described activities demonstrate AEOBiH’s ability and competence to act as a crucial partner not only in the field of elections but also in projects that support democracy and good governance through education of government officials and all categories of citizens about their rights and responsibilities, public advocacy, and lobbying for improvements in the existing legislation or adoption of new laws. AEOBIH has started this kind of training with election officials from other countries from region. For example we organized training on election system in BiH for election officials and members of the Central Election Commission of Albania during General Elections in October 2002, which was sponsored by World Learning. The Association plans to continue with offering this kind of trainings to other election administrators from region in order to equalize election standards and improve election acts based on positive experiences that BiH has achieved in some areas.

Support from IFES and USAID have ensured that the association members developed the ability to design and implement training programs for election officials as well as civil society programs including the education of youth on democratic principles and voter outreach campaigns. The Secretariat of the AEOBiH has also developed into a core group that is capable of managing AEOBiH projects and leading the effort to ensure sustainability of this organization.

After more than two years of working under the auspices of the International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES) and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the Association of Election Officials of BiH will become a self-supporting, independent non-governmental organization (NGO) at the end of February 2003. AEOBIH is poised to contribute to the democratization of Bosnia and Herzegovina and take on an important role in the organization of future elections in BiH.

Experienced and highly competent AEOBiH Secretariat staff and AEOBiH trainers, existing infrastructure at the AEOBiH Secretariat in Sarajevo, functional membership network in the field, access to major decision-making institutions, as well as valuable skills and knowledge gained through cooperation with IFES experts represent a uniquely strong foundation for any large-scale democracy development and good governance project that the AEOBiH might embark upon in the future.