EXCLUSIVE: Voting Tech Disaster Could Force Bosnia To Redo Elections In Just Seven Days, Official Says

SARAJEVO, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA — Amid one of its most politically consequential elections in years, Bosnia’s nationwide debut of biometric voter checks and ballot scanners stumbled Sunday, causing polling stations to delay vote casting or temporarily shut down.

Though the technology was introduced specifically in the Balkan country to combat election irregularities and organized voter manipulation, technical problems emerged almost immediately after polls opened, according to The Associated Press (AP). The election may even have to be reconducted in a week, a member of the Central Election Commission, Dr. Irena Hadžiabdić, told the Daily Caller News Foundation in an exclusive interview. Hadžiabdić has been a member of the Central Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina since 2007.

The DCNF was on the ground in Banja Luka and Sarajevo documenting the election after spending days covering the political battle leading into the vote.

“There are ways to correct serious problems we had at several polling stations, and in that case we always can annul elections and repeat them in seven days,” Hadžiabdić told the DCNF. “But we have to take this decision a little bit later.”

“I’m, at the moment, in [the nation’s second-largest city,] Banja Luka. My voting place was in Banja Luka, so I’m one of the witnesses. So I was queuing for two hours and [a] half in one of the schools [sic],” Ana Trišić-Babić, who served as Bosnia and Herzegovina’s deputy minister of foreign affairs from 2007 to 2015, told the DCNF. “The scan machines, they were blocking [sic]. Then they were going out as crazy, trying to find technicians, [but] no technicians.”

At the time of writing, it remains unknown if the voting machines will work properly.

“Now we are all waiting,” Hadžiabdić continued. “What will happen after 7 o’clock when we close … most of the polling station[s]? Will these machine[s] work properly and actually be able to transmit all these results that we are waiting for?”

Multiple sources told the DCNF that lines to vote were quickly stretching to last several hours throughout the day. Hadžiabdić spun the issue as proof people are excited to get out and vote.

“I know that sometimes they’re queuing,” Hadžiabdić told the DCNF. “If we always have a queue, if people are interested in elections, I am begging them when I speak publicly during the day to be patient, and we tell them the queuing is sometimes good for democracy. That means that people would like to vote, and we would like to have this increased turnout.”