The Central Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a month before local elections, has yet to secure transport for ballots, reports Radio Free Europe.

The reason is that two tenders for the transportation of election materials were canceled, meaning no service provider was selected to handle the transport.

The tender's value was around 200,000 BAM (about 100,000 euros), and the ballots were supposed to be transported to 142 electoral units in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Central Election Commission (CIK) sought help from the Ministry of Defense of Bosnia and Herzegovina, believing, as they stated, that the Ministry has enough vehicles to handle the task.

“According to the Election Law of Bosnia and Herzegovina, all government bodies at all levels and officials in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as in BiH diplomatic and consular missions, are obliged to assist the bodies responsible for conducting elections. The Central Election Commission of BiH requested support from the Ministry of Defense of Bosnia and Herzegovina last week, and negotiations with the Ministry of Defense are ongoing,” the CIK told Radio Free Europe.

The CIK emphasizes that the election process must not be jeopardized.

In addition to the transportation of ballots, the tender's value also included the transport of non-sensitive election materials such as pens, markers, bags, and voter lists.

In the meantime, the CIK has found a solution for the delivery of “non-sensitive materials to local communities.”

A decision has been made to pay 6,000 BAM (about 3,000 euros) for transport from the CIK warehouse in East Sarajevo to municipalities and cities across BiH and back to East Sarajevo.

This transport began on September 8 and will last for five days.

“It is quite interesting how election material will be transported for 6,000 BAM when the previous procurement process for the same services, valued at 200,000 BAM, failed,” says Slobodan Golubović, editor of the PratimoTendere.ba portal, to RFE.

The transportation of ballots for the local elections is scheduled to begin on September 29, and the CIK must find a way to accomplish this by then.

Why were the tenders canceled twice?

The first public procurement process for the transportation of ballots for the local elections in BiH was launched on May 15 and was canceled on June 13 because neither of the two bids received met the required conditions outlined in the tender documentation.

Two companies from Sarajevo applied for the tender.

According to the tender documentation, the company needed to have at least 30 employees or engaged personnel (drivers) who would be involved in providing transport services, as well as technical equipment and capabilities.

This included having at least 30 technically sound vehicles, of which 14 were vans and 16 trucks with a carrying capacity of five to 10 tons.

The election materials were to be transported from the CIK warehouse in East Sarajevo to municipal election commissions across BiH and back.

The second procurement process was initiated on July 2 and was canceled on September 6 because, once again, neither of the two bids received was acceptable.

The transportation service providers filed complaints about this process, after which the BiH Office for Review of Appeals decided in their favor.

The decisions of the Office for Review of Appeals in this process are not yet publicly available, says the PratimoTendere.ba portal, so their content cannot be commented on.

The CIK also highlighted that they “continuously face challenges in implementing the 2024 local elections, including in the area of public procurement.”

They added that the budget for the local elections was approved at the end of July, and they needed to conduct 48 public procurement processes.

Through the public procurement system in BiH, up to three billion BAM of public funds (about 1.5 billion euros) is spent annually.