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Workshops 3 and 8
COORDINATION OF ELECTION BODIES' ACTIVITIES
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After ten workshops, we summarized conclusions
of this workshop, which resulted from discussions and ideas of the
workshop participants. Participants were giving their opinions and
ideas about general issues discussed during the conference: transfer
of information between the Secretariat of the Election Commission
of Bosnia and Herzegovina and municipal election commissions, role
of entity and cantonal election commissions, implementation of the
law on conflict of interest, effects from monthly meetings of municipal
election commissions through round tables of the Association of
Election Officials of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and role of the Association
of Election Officials in transfer of information.
General evaluation of communication between election
bodies, Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina and municipal
election commissions was satisfactory, but there are a lot of elements
that should be improved. Most remarks referred to timely sending
of information from the Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina
to municipal election commissions, competencies of coordinators
of the Secretariat of the Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina,
who were not able to answer all questions. Also, insufficient number
of meetings of municipal election commissions with the Election
Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina was pointed out and participants
recommended organization of more meetings in the future. There was
also suggestion to speed up fast mail in the future.
Referring to roles of the Election Commissions
of Republic of Srpska, Federation of BiH, and cantonal election
commissions, there were various opinions. Some participants think
that they should not be established while the others think that
they are necessary for good and successful implementation of the
election process. Since the law has regulated establishment of the
commission, a general recommendation is to precisely define competences
and tasks in order to improve election process. If there are no
clearly defined relations between election bodies, there are fears
that exchange of information will be slowed down and that cooperation
among election bodies will be more difficult. The general opinion
is that the greatest part of communication between the Election
Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina and municipal election commissions
should remain more direct.
Based on general information that participants
received on conflict of interest, it has been evaluated that implementation
of this law will require a lot of efforts, but it is necessary to
wait until entities adopt entity laws regarding this issue. Workshop
participants are afraid that implementation of this law at the municipality
level would be very difficult due to great number of other obligations
of municipal election commissions, which are regulated by the law.
At the end, participants praised roundtables
through which members of municipal election commissions could exchange
information and various experiences from the field. The Association
was very important segment in exchange of information towards municipal
election commissions, and participants recommended continuation
of such activities through round tables in which political parties
and other election participants should be more involved in the future.
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