E-voting application for local elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bojan Glavan

Bachelor's thesis

Abstract:

Electronic elections are nothing new in today's society, but they are still very underrepresented around the world. Acceptance and usage of technologies needed for e-voting in elections remains a problem regardless of where they are implemented. The political situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina is considered as one of the most complicated in the world. The result of such a system is a poor economic situation, a high unemployment rate, a large number of politicians, an exodus of the population, and so on. The consequence of all this is the lack of trust of citizens towards politicians and the fairness of the electoral system. Citizens feel that their vote has no weight. This paper analyzes already existing models of online voting, with the aim of their modification and implementation. We investiage the online election processes that took place in Estonia and Switzerland, and following the example of the way they were held, we present a model that can be implemented in Bosnia and Herzegovina in local elections in the municipality of Novi Grad Sarajevo. The current situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina leads to a drop in turnout, which ultimately results in stagnation or worse, the collapse of the state. The problem is also the organization of elections that will be fair, secure and efficient. We conducted a survey that shows the interest of citizens in the idea of implementing e-elections, and this can be considered a "favorable ground" for the continuation of dialogue on this topic. We believe that the implementation of online elections represents a potential solution in breaking the distrust of citizens in the election process. By implementing them, the electoral process can be made simpler, faster and more efficient, and in the future it could set an example that could be followed by other municipalities in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Keywords

Electronic Elections, Online Voting, Political system of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 15. 3. 2021

Thesis defence

• Supervisor: doc. Ing. Vojtěch Merunka, Ph.D.

Czech University of Life Sciences Prague

Faculty of Economics and Management

Bachelor programme / field:
Systems Engineering and Informatics / Informatics