Second Annual Conference in Teslic

Page 12

This presentation is a compilation of a number of workshops and presentations addressing and evaluating the functioning of AEOBiH, it's past activities and ideas and visions to guide future work.

2000 has been a very eventful year for our association. We are slowly becoming bigger in terms of membership base and we are slowly but steadily becoming more relevant to elections as the number of AEOBiH activities increases.

The AEOBiH Presidency, Branch Presidency and Working Committee members have met - together and individually - to deal with many different tasks in the past year. The meetings of AEOBiH bodies serve a number of purposes: 1) to evaluate and plan for activities (e.g. the Presidency), 2) to strengthen the level of activities at regional level (e.g. the Branch Presidencies), and 3) to involve a broad section of members in the planning and implementation of activities (e.g. the Working Committees). Also, recently the Court of Honor had its first meeting and besides processing a number of cases against members earlier dismissed by the PEC, the Court of Honor established a new set of rules of procedures to make the future functioning of the Court of Honor more effective.

Our first conference this year was held in May in Neum. The conference provided members with an opportunity to discuss issues and problems emerging during the April Elections. The conference involved more than 150 people including AEOBiH members, OSCE staff, guests and journalists. A conference report was published in local language and English and is still available from the IFES/AEOBiH Secretariat. The conference we attend today is also addressing lessons learned from both the April and the November Elections, but our primary focus is the nationalization process. It is a complex issue posing substantial challenges to OSCE and to us as AEOBiH members and citizens of BiH.

Beside meetings and conferences, AEOBiH members have been engaged in professional development activities. In October, 16 AEOBiH and MEC members carried out 96 consultations with MECs from all over the country. The purpose of the consultations was to draw a picture of the pre-election situation in municipalities and to address problems well ahead of Election Day.

In November, 12 AEOBiH members completed the first 2 modules of the Conflict Resolution Course offered by the Canadian Institute for Conflict Resolution. The course has received a very positive evaluation from participants, and the main purpose of the course - to build communication skills - has been very well appreciated.

AEOBiH's flagship this year was members' involvement in PSC training. Members/trainers received training on issues related to planning and interactive teaching methods during a two-day seminar in Fojnica in September this year. The primary purpose of the training was to prepare all AEOBiH trainers for a PSC training program where they would take unprecedented responsibility for the organization and planning of all training activities in the field. Forty-two (42) AEOBiH members out of 51 people hired as IFES trainers worked as Polling Station Committee trainers in September, October and November. The training carried out by AEOBiH members in cooperation with OSCE gave members the opportunity to become involved in a substantial training program and those of our members who were involved received a positive evaluation by MECs and OSCE. The training program itself - the video, manual, and combination of theory and practical exercises - needs revision and hopefully AEOBiH will be able to contribute to that process in the future.

AEOBiH members from 51 municipalities carried out IFES-sponsored voter information activities. The activities took many forms depending on the audience and the location. A rock concert/voter information event was arranged to attract young voters; radio appearances were made by AEOBiH members; posters with polling station locations details were produced and displayed; and hot lines were established and staffed through Election Day.

International activities also played a major role in our 2000 program. Twenty (20) AEOBiH members participated in election observation missions to Lithuania, Poland and Slovenia. The observation missions went beyond the traditional election observation program and included extensive talks with election administration staff, political parties, NGOs and election commissioners at all levels.

Ten (10) AEOBiH members participated in the ACEEEO (Association of Central and Eastern European Elections Officials) conference in Warsaw and the IACREOT (International Association of Clerks, Registrars, Election Officials and Treasurers) Conference in the United States. The subjects of these conferences were related to elections in an international perspective and the use of new technology in the pursuit of more effective elections. A small selection of members went to the AEA (Association of Electoral Administrators) annual conference in the United Kingdom early in the year. The conference gave members an opportunity to learn more about the UK association, which has provided important assistance to our association in the past.

During the course of the year 2000, the IFES/AEOBiH Secretariat, AEOBiH Information Committee and various individual members have contributed significantly to the overall presentation of AEOBiH to the local and international public. The promotional endeavor has had its high and low stages, depending on the dynamics of AEOBiH activities, but in general it can be represented in the following six segments:

1. Media promotion prior to Municipal Elections in April. At the beginning of the year the idea was adopted to launch a media strategy project by presenting the AEOBiH in more general terms on TV and radio. This had a goal of giving the public basic information on what the AEOBiH is, when and why it was established, and what its current and future plans are.
2. Neum Elections Conference publication and post-conference media promotion. Information Committee members organized a press conference on the last day of the conference. RTV Republika Srpska and Tuzla Canton TV were present. After the conference a brochure containing all proceedings and conclusions was published and disseminated by the IFES/AEOBiH Secretariat.
3. Media promotion prior to General Elections in November. Media promotion for the General Elections in November was largely a part of the overall voter education and information campaign conducted by AEOBiH members and funded by IFES Sarajevo. AEOBiH members participated in numerous TV and radio programs and generally focused their presentations on voting rules and procedures for General Elections, locations of polling stations, open lists, and the preferential voting system.
4. AEOBiH leaflet. The IFES/AEOBiH Secretariat designed and printed a promotional leaflet, in English and local languages, which contains basic information on the AEOBiH, its structure, goals, and contact information, as well as the main international codes of conduct for election officials. OSCE assisted us with the distribution of 20,000 local language leaflets via their field offices.
5. AEOBiH newsletter "Elections". The four issues of the AEOBiH Newsletter "Elections" that have been published during 2000 (with the fifth one currently being produced) represent one of the best and most efficient tools for promotion of the AEOBiH.
6. AEOBiH Web-site. In October 2000 the IFES/AEOBiH Secretariat launched the new web-site. All who visit us at www.aeobih.com.ba will be able to find a variety of information related to AEOBiH background, goals, structure, past and current activities, membership, and contact details. The web-site was advertised in the newsletter, at a press conference in Sarajevo, and in direct contacts with members and international colleagues. It is available in English as well as in a local language version, which is a combination of general texts in Bosnian, and legal documents in all three languages spoken in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian).
7. Second Annual Conference and Assembly Meeting. Finally, it should be mentioned that this conference presents an excellent opportunity for promoting the AEOBiH. After the conference the IFES/AEOBiH Secretariat will be working on a report, similar to that published after the Neum conference, which will contain all of the conclusions from our discussions today.

Our Association in 2001

The coming year will not bring any elections. We will take the opportunity to consolidate the status of the AEOBiH and develop the professional, election-related competence of our members. We will work to continuously improve communication between members and between members and the IFES/AEOBiH Secretariat. A decentralized structure with AEOBiH offices outside Sarajevo will be considered for this purpose.

An Elections Course is planned to start in February 2001. The course is intended to provide members with the opportunity to gain comprehensive knowledge about international election standards, components of election systems, the election system in Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH), and issues related to election administration in BiH. The course will focus on the rules and regulations and the draft election law to ensure that, once a participant has completed the course, all questions and doubts concerning any aspects of election administration in BiH have been addressed and answered in a thorough manner.

In 2001 the election observation missions to Albania (Albanian parliamentary elections in June), Poland (Polish parliamentary elections in September) and Bulgaria (Bulgarian presidential/parliamentary elections in fall) will be organized. AEOBiH should also be able to host election officials from other countries, when elections take place in BiH in 2002.

An AEOBiH delegation will participate in the ACEEEO conference to be held in Zagreb. The subject of the conference in Zagreb concerns funding of campaigns and political parties - a subject, which is high on the agenda throughout the region as elsewhere in the world at the moment. AEOBiH is a member of ACEEEO, and we should try to support and take active participation in its future activities.

AEOBiH will continue to work with the Canadian Institute for Conflict Resolution in 2001 and more members will be provided with the opportunity to participate in conflict resolution courses.

AEOBiH will publish a Technical Series in the form of bi-annual publications. The purpose of the Technical Series is three-fold: 1) to promote AEOBiH vis-ŕ-vis national electoral authorities, potential members, other election official associations, NGOs and donors; 2) to involve AEOBiH members in elections research; 3) to inform our members about technical issues.

The registration of voters in BiH still constitutes a major challenge to the election administration. In connection with the last election, AEOBiH designed and distributed a voter tracking from to be used by polling stations on Election Day. The purpose of the form was to identify voters not appearing on the voter register in order for MECs to assist these voters in correcting their registration records for future elections. The form was not used in all polling stations, but AEOBiH will assist those MECs who were able to obtain concrete information about voters without proper registration. The next step in this project will be to develop a plan for out-reach activities in municipalities to ensure the correct registration of these voters.

The election law is yet to be adopted by the BiH parliament and it is difficult to foresee when it will happen. AEOBiH will - in the beginning of 2001 - constitute a working group dealing in particular with chapters concerning municipal election commissions and polling station committees. The purpose of the project is to advance suggestions and advise the parliament concerning practical and legal issues to be considered in the Election Law.

Nationalization of the election system will be on the top of our agenda in the coming years. AEOBiH will work to establish good working relationships with the future BiH election commission, providing assistance to the authorities as necessary. The coming years will be important for AEOBiH in the sense that we will have to prove our capacity and competence to emerging national elections authorities.

The strength of the association is its membership. Our association has members in virtually all municipalities in BiH. Effective voter information strategies in our country call for locally designed strategies. Locally designed strategies meet local needs. Appearances by members on the radio- to explain the open list system, the preferential system or the location of polling stations - has proven effective in many municipalities. Hot lines have also proven to be valuable and should be implemented in all municipalities in the future. Activities - e.g. posters on apartment buildings - ensuring display of polling station location are important and should also be part of future activities.

Finally, we should mention our Association's public profile. It is important that we inform the general public about our activities and mandate. The public should be aware of our existence and the fact that there is an association of election officials, which is striving to ensure free and fair elections in our country. We should find effective ways of communicating our message to a broad audience.

Thank you.