The Venice Commission is not solving problems it only gives an opinion on whether certain matters are in line with the European Convention on Human Rights, said the Democratic Front (DF), leader Zeljko Komsic, commenting unsuccessful talks on Bosnia's electoral reform and information that this advisory body will be invited to join the talks
“We would like to see now what are they going to say in the context of which direction to take,” said Komsic, who participated in the negotiations of political actors on changes to the Bosnia's Election Law as a leader of one of the opposition parties.
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 the advisory role in these meetings. The last in the series of meetings took place on Thursday but ended without a success.
VEZANE VIJESTI
According to Komsic, it was hard to expect the consensus would be reached at this meeting.
“Delegation of the Croat Democratic Union (HDZ) and the Croat People's Council (HNS) insist on talks on (election of) the Presidency too, contrary to the Constitutional Court's decision,” he explained, adding that other four parties taking part in the talks maintained their previous stances, that the court ordered changes in only one part of the Election Law, which was why the talks yielded no result.
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 House of Peoples of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) entity.
In Komsic's opinion, HDZ leader Dragan Covic would like to “gain more than the Constitutional Court said” and this was his political goal.
As the October election is approaching, as well as the early May deadline to announce the election, the talks have been intensified but with no success. The latest in the series of talks resulted only in agreement to invite the Venice Commission's representatives to join the talks.
