Ambassador of the Kingdom of Spain to BiH visited BiH CEC
The Ambassador of the Kingdom of Spain to BiH, H.E. José María Valdemoro Giménez visited the Central Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina today and met with Mr. Željko Bakalar, President of the Central Election Commission of BiH.
The interlocutors discussed the challenges faced by the Central Election Commission of BiH during the organization of the 2020 Local Elections in BiH, with special emphasis on the upcoming elections for the City Council of the City of Mostar scheduled for Sunday, December 20, 2020. The interlocutors expressed satisfaction that the conditions have been met for the citizens of Mostar to elect their city government and that everything is ready for the elections in Mostar to be conducted in accordance with the Election Law of BiH.
The topic of the meeting was also continuation of the project “The development of a Strategy and Action-plan to Improve the Integrity, transparency and efficiency of the Election Process in Bosnia and Herzegovina”, which was funded by the European Union through an Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) with a total value of 299.000 EUR and implemented by the Indra Soluciones Tecnologicas de lainformacion SL, a Spanish Company with 40 years’ experience providing technology solutions and professional services for election management in 40 different countries.
The aim of the project was to support the Central Election Commission of BiH in developing a framework and roadmap for strengthening the capacity of the Central Election Commission of BiH to successfully conduct elections in a transparent, efficient and sustainable manner, and with the application of new technologies in the election process and observance of all European standards, which has a direct link to the first of 14 key priorities of the European Commission Opinion on Bosnia and Herzegovina's application for EU membership. This priority aims to ensure that elections are conducted in line with European standards through the implementation of OSCE/ODIHR recommendations and relevant recommendations of the Venice Commission. On this occasion, the President of the Central Election Commission of BiH informed Ambassador Giménez that the said strategy was officially adopted by the Central Election Commission of BiH and submitted to the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH for consideration and adoption.