CEC BiH hides data from election technologies: TI BiH and the Koalicija Pod lupom demand disclosure of information that could help uncover possible election manipulations

Sarajevo, November 14, 2026 – The Central Election Commission (CEC) rejected requests from the Koalicija Pod lupom and Transparency International in BiH to provide information recorded on voter identification devices and scanners that could help uncover possible election manipulations. The requested data included voter turnout figures by polling station, as well as the number of people who could not be identified via fingerprint. Also requested was a list of polling stations where any of the technologies could not be used, as well as those where discrepancies were observed between electronic and manual vote counts.

The CEC refused to provide this information, the election results were confirmed, and at the session where the request for access to information was decided, it was stated that the requested data could be misinterpreted.

“These are individual data points which, if taken out of context, can be interpreted in various ways and could create a completely false impression among the public,” said CEC member Suad Arnautović, adding that the data would not be provided before the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH had discussed the matter in full.

TI BiH and the Koalicija Pod lupom consider this to be unlawful conduct, which is why legal proceedings will be initiated, as this concerns the protection of the integrity of the electoral process. It should be noted that the new election technologies were introduced precisely because, in the previous period, independent election observation, numerous court proceedings, and graphological analyses had proven widespread manipulation of voters’ ballots. The irregularities established included voting on behalf of other persons (most often deceased individuals or those who did not turn out to vote), double voting, abuse of assisted voting, violations of ballot secrecy, and election theft – adding votes to blank ballots, adding preferential votes, and/or deliberately invalidating valid ballots.

The electronic voter identification and authentication system was meant to prevent identity abuse, while the scanners were meant to prevent manipulation of ballots and vote counting. The non-use or incorrect application of either of these technologies could have enabled new manipulations, and suspicion that such manipulations occurred is raised not only by media reports but also by certain official data.

For example, officially published voter turnout data show an unnatural increase in turnout between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. in numerous local communities. Data from the Koalicija Pod lupom, based on a representative sample of polling stations, show that in only 55.8% of the observed polling stations did the number of ballots for the BiH Presidency level match the number of voters identified via the identification devices. Discrepancies greater than +/-3 votes were recorded at 6.5% of the observed polling stations.

In addition, TI BiH’s analysis identified more than 500 polling stations where indicators were observed that, according to international practice and electoral analytics, point to the existence of potential election irregularities. These are polling stations that reported turnout higher than 80% (almost double the average), a share of invalid ballots higher than 15%, or a concentration of votes for a single candidate higher than 80%.

Additionally, the process of introducing the new election technologies was highly non-transparent. To this day, it remains unclear how the process of determining the election results unfolded, which results were publicly published, whether they were changed relative to the preliminary results, and why there is no comparison of the official turnout from the new election technologies with the number of ballots, nor a comparison of the electronic results with the manual vote-counting results. It is also unclear which turnout figure was displayed on the results website – the one from the identification devices or the number of ballots processed by the scanners.

Since the election results have been confirmed and the elections were not annulled at any polling station, we believe that all obstacles to the publication of all information regarding the functioning and use of the new election technologies, turnout at individual polling stations, and voting samples and methods have been removed – that is, all information that the CEC undoubtedly possesses and that could help in the analysis of the electoral process itself.

TI BiH and the Koalicija Pod lupom urge the CEC to immediately provide all the requested data, as refusal to disclose all information on the electoral process in its possession may further raise suspicion and trigger speculation about new potential irregularities.

Press release 11/14/2026