Croat political parties in Bosnia and Herzegovina accused on Sunday Bosnia’s top international official of ignoring a Constitutional Court decision concerning ethnic representation in the Upper House of the Bosniak-Croat Federation (FBiH) Parliament.
The General Council of the Croatian National Assembly (HNS), a political organisation of the Croat political parties in Bosnia, issued a statement saying that High Representative Valentin Inzko was advocating violations of the country’s Constitution and that he was disrespecting decisions of the Constitutional Court.
Inzko, the statement said, told media that each of the 10 cantons in the FBiH should have its representatives from all constituent peoples in the House of Peoples and proportional to the prewar 1991 census.
“Incredible but true, Valentin Inzko has given statements for a Bosnian media, saying the country should continue to violate the Bosnian Constitution,” the statement said.
In December 2016, the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) ruled partially in favour of a complaint lodged by former Croat Democratic Union politician Bozo Ljubic. At issue was the Election Law provision dictating that cantons delegate at least one representative from each of the country’s three main ethnic groups to the FBiH entity House of Peoples.
Ljubic argued that the Croat influence in cantons with majority Bosniak populations was unfairly diminished in the selection of delegates. He argued that Croat candidates, therefore, should be elected only out of majority Croat cantons, thereby ensuring that only Croats vote for Croat delegates.
According to the Croatian National Assembly, the court declared the part about each canton delegating at least one representative from each of the country’s three main ethnic groups to the Upper House as unconstitutional and subsequently erased it from the Election Law.
It also prescribed that the 2013 census must be used. The Office of the High Representative (OHR) and Inzko are perhaps “only unreasonably consistent in violating the rights of Croats, because their so-called ‘solutions’ have been advertised as discriminatory and unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court of Bosnia,” the statement said.
