Almost no level of government in Bosnia functions properly, the President of the opposition Social Democratic Party (SDP), Nermin Niksic, told French Ambassador Guillaume Rousson.

The two spoke about the ongoing negotiations regarding the Election Law, and about the SDP’s election platform – the Plan 10.

Talks on electoral reform in Bosnia have been in a deadlock for some time, despite international mediation and advice.

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 time-frame resulting in a further court ruling which deleted two sections of the Election Law that treats the matter of representation in the House of Peoples in Bosnia’s Federation (FBiH), the semi-autonomous entity shared by ethnic Bosniaks and Croats.

The main party representing ethnic Croats in the country, the Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina (HDZBiH), would like each ethnic group to vote only for candidates of that ethnic group. This is in line with the Constitution, but it would violate human rights of all, most notably of minorities as they cannot run for top offices at all, according to the Constitution.

“We can say that we were right when we said three years ago that the current government will not work for the interest of the citizens,” Niksic told reporters today.

“Still, as many times before, the SDP wants to be part of the solution, and this extends to the current issue regarding changes to the Election Law,” he said.

An SDP press release states that the party had proposed precise solutions for filling the seats in the Federation House of Peoples, which are in harmony with the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights as well as Bosnia’s Constitution.

“We were aware that negotiations will be difficult from the very beginning, as the HDZBiH is not open to any compromises regarding this issue. Still, we are not giving up on finding an agreement that will suit all sides,” Niksic said.

“We are aware that we cannot compete with nationalist parties on their own turf. That is why we devised the Plan 10, where we propose concrete solutions to problems of all citizens in Bosnia,” he added.