President of the Croat People's Assembly (HNS) and leader of Croat Democratic Union of BiH (HDZ BiH), Dragan Covic, stated on Monday, following the session of the HNS Presidency, that legitimate representation of peoples in Bosnia has no alternative.

Covic’s intervention followed agreement by four Sarajevo-based political parties on the way in which Bosnia’s Election Law should be amended.  

Two years ago the Constitutional Court ruled that some provisions of the Election Law were inconsistent with the state Constitution. Since then the authorities have failed to act in the legally allowed timeframe resulting in a further court ruling to delete two sections of the Election Law that treats the matter of representation in the FBiH House of Peoples.

Commenting the talks of the international officials and representatives of political parties seated in Sarajevo, HDZ BiH leader said:  

“Since there was a talk on only one small part of what the Constitutional Court's decision actually was, we defined it as a very clear aspiration to divide Bosnia and Herzegovina, to create a Bosniak majority out of the Federation (of Bosnia and Herzegovina), and so on.” There was a little chance, said Covic that something was going to happen regarding the Election Law changes.  

“I experience the spins from Sarajevo as political spins. I am deeply convinced that this means a huge harm to BiH, we are moving further from normal functioning,” said Covic.

“The minimum we advocate is legitimacy in the Presidency, the House of Peoples and Mostar.”  

Weighing into the dispute, the Head of the EU Delegation Lars-Gunnar Wigemark and the US Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina Maureen Cormack recently stated that the House of Peoples and the Mostar election issue were priorities, while other issues, including the election in Presidency should wait until after the elections.