The High Representative's expectations expressed in December 2023 remain the same, the international peace envoy's office told N1, commenting on the allegations of progress made in recent talks on electoral reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina among the state-level ruling coalition leaders.
“The BiH authorities have so far failed to harmonise the Election Law with international standards on the transparency and integrity of election processes and good practices applied in democratic elections, and therefore it is possible to make progress there,” the Office of the High Representative said.
The comment comes days after a leak of the document, for which the SNSD party claims to be the agreement reached at the recent meeting with other partners – the HDZ BiH party and the Troika, which consists of the People and Justice party, the Our Party and the SDP.
However, the Troika representatives said it was only a working version, and that they would not give up on the proposed corrections. 
Prior to the meeting, on December 19, High Representative Christian Schmidt, who has executive powers to impose laws and remove officials in Bosnia, set a deadline for the coalition leaders to amend the Election Law regarding the integrity of the election process or he would do so.
In a statement to N1, the OHR specified that those law changes must include “the clear identification of each voter, the electronic counting of votes as they were cast, the secure transmission of ballots to electoral committees at polling stations that operate transparently and independently.”
“This should already start with the municipal elections in October. Every false vote is an obstacle in reaching European standards regarding freedom and democracy. Citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina must have confidence in electoral systems, the consistent application of procedural protection measures and the secrecy of voting,” the OHR said.
The coalition leaders met on January 18 in Laktasi, near Banja Luka, stating that they had made significant progress in the negotiations on changes to the Election Law and that they would finalise the issue in February.
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