Unacceptable and Inaccurate Claims Regarding the Public Procurement of the System for Biometric Voter Identification and Ballot Paper Scanning at Polling Stations
Sarajevo, 23 April 2026 – In connection with the claims and allegations made in recent days in public concerning the public procurement of the system for biometric voter identification and ballot paper scanning at polling stations, the Central Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina stresses that it fully stands by the lawfulness of its decision in the public procurement procedure in question. We particularly wish to emphasize that dangerous and entirely false allegations have been made that members of the Central Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina accepted or expected bribes in the public procurement procedure in question, as well as allegations that representatives of the international community exerted pressure on members of the Central Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina when deciding on the selection of the most advantageous qualified tenderer. We therefore publicly call upon the competent institutions to examine all such allegations, and the Central Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina stands fully at their disposal.
Furthermore, we consider that the allegations in question made by certain individuals constitute pressure on the Public Procurement Review Body and that, by making inaccurate claims regarding the public procurement — claims relating to the overall procedure and the manner of decision-making of the Central Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina — there is an attempt to compromise and halt the greatest-ever effort to strengthen the integrity of the electoral process in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the history of democratic elections held in the country.
The unsubstantiated claims and falsehoods expressed in the media are best illustrated by the wholly inaccurate claims regarding the number of members of the Commission conducting the procurement procedure, as well as the vote splits at certain phases of voting within the Procurement Commission. As regards the manner of voting of the said Commission, even the Central Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina itself does not have that information, and on this occasion it once again expresses surprise that such information could be in the possession of someone from outside, especially of representatives of one of the tenderers that participated in the public procurement.