ELECTORAL ADMINISTRATION NOT READY FOR ELECTIONS

SARAJEVO, SEPTEMBER 25 /SRNA/ - The Pod Lupom /Under the Magnifying Glass/ Coalition for Free and Fair Elections warned that a significant number of election commissions, polling station committees and operators are still not ready to conduct elections using new technologies.

A particular problem is the fact that the initial training sessions were predominantly theoretical and lacked practical work, while in some areas the electoral administration has not yet had an opportunity to become directly familiar with the equipment, or training has not even begun, despite the deadline for completing the training being yesterday, the coalition said in a statement. The Pod Lupom Coalition pointed out that there is institutional and systemic sluggishness in the training process and that shortcomings in preparations will first become apparent at polling stations. It warned that inadequately trained election officials could lead to a slower voting process, queues, additional questions and voter uncertainty, incorrect application of procedures or unnecessary delays in the event of technical problems. "Even when the devices function technically, poor preparation of the people operating them can produce the same consequences, which citizens perceive as a problem with the technology itself," the statement said. The coalition said it was necessary to urgently intensify and improve the training of election officials so that biometric voter identification and ballot scanning on election day could be successfully implemented.