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THE BOSNIAN ELECTIONS: What happened and why?

Alisa Karović

The Harriman Institute at Columbia University is organizing panel on the Bosnian elections with legal expert Srđan BlagovčaninDarko Brkan, president of the Association of Citizens “Why Not,” and Ivana Jordanovska, former adviser to the Macedonian Prime Minister. Panel will be moderated by Tanya Domi (Columbia/SIPA).

Srđan Blagovčanin is a specialist in the field of rule of law, good governance and anti-corruption reforms, public policies and legislation with more than 12 years of experience as manager, analyst and legal expert. He worked with Transparency international, the World Bank, USAID, Global Integrity, and many other international and national organisations and institutions. Currently he is Chairman of the Board of Directors of Transparency International Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and key expert for policy development on the project “Strenghtening Capacities for Strategic planning and Policy Development – Phase II. Blagovčanin has authored a number of studies and analyses on the said topics, published by John Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies, Center for Transatlantic relations (CTR), Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Transparency International and many others. His field of interests is primarily rule of law, public policies, anti-corruption, governance, state and institution building and democratisation.

Darko Brkan is the president of the Association of Citizens “Why Not,” one of the most prominent Bosnian NGOs that promotes civic activism, government accountability, and the use of technology and digital media in deepening democracy in Bosnia-Herzegovina. He also acts as the president of the board of the regional network Action SEE (Accountability, Technology and Institutional Openness Network in the Sout-East Europe region). In addition, he was a founding member of Dosta! (Enough!), one of Bosnia’s most prominent citizens’ movements for social justice and government accountability. A leading civil society activist, Darko began his career in civic activism more than fifteen years ago as coordinator of the Campaign for Conscientious Objection, a network of organizations that promoted peace and conscientious objection to military service in BiH. Brkan’s professional interests are mainly in the sphere of technology and social impacts of technology, digital and social media, elections and political processes, civic activism and participation, international relations, etc.

Ivana Jordanovska is a Fulbright scholar at New York University where she is studying international affairs. She is a former adviser to Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev of Macedonia (FYROM). Jordanovska worked on the campaign of the Social Democratic Union (SDS is an international affiliate of the Democratic Party, US) that elected the Zaev government in 2017, throwing out a repressive regime, following months of protests. She has also worked for the Westminster Foundation for Democracy on a regional Western Balkans Six, a network of parliamentary committees focusing on economy, finance and European integration. She later served at the OSCE mission to Bosnian and Herzegovina on a project focused on promoting tolerance, and countering violent extremism. She also interned in the Macedonian parliament.

Panel will be held on Thursday, December 6, 2018 at 6:10 pm.
Location: Marshall D. Shulman Seminar Room, 1219 International Affairs Building (420 W 118th St)