The election in Bosnia must be held and election results must be implemented for this country to move forward, the UK Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina Edward Ferguson told N1, commenting the electoral reform impasse in the country.

According to him, political parties obviously took “maximalist positions” regarding this matter but, as he said, it was the responsibility of political leaders to reach an agreement.

Political talks on electoral reform in Bosnia have been in a deadlock for some time, despite mediation of the international representatives in the country, who took an advisory role in these talks.

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 ongoing election campaign in Bosnia, the ambassador said it seemed as if the campaign lasts for too long and that consequences of that were already visible.

“We are very much committed to supporting the progress of this country and we are seeking to invest millions of pounds (GBP) of the British tax payers’ money but, unfortunately, particularly in the Federation (of Bosnia and Herzegovina, FBiH) we have seen a slowdown,” said the UK ambassador, expressing concern over situation in the country, especially for one of the Bosnia's semi-autonomous entities, the FBiH.

As for the security situation, Ferguson assessed that there was too much talk in the country about weapons and conflicts.

He recalled that the situation was quite the same four years ago when he took the office in Bosnia, which was also the year of the election. “We are mostly seeing the same, frankly, it's not constructive it's not helpful and is not sending a good message from this country…,” he concluded.