The pre-election campaign in Bosnia has never been more dangerous, political analyst Zarko Papic told N1.
“The pre-election campaign began long ago, and the question is if it ever ended. I think this pre-election warm-up is the worst yet and we already have some negative impacts. National tensions are rising on something called national concepts,” Papic said.
According to him, this is not something all parties do.
“It’s not all parties that do this, but we can be direct: (The Serb-dominated, Republika Srpska entity President Milorad) Dodik, his party and his suggestion concerning the borders are quite dangerous, to say the least. Not just for Bosnia and Herzegovina, but equally dangerous for Serbia. If one opens up the question of drawing of new borders, one is opening up the question of Bosniaks from the Sandzak region, in Serbia. Who can prevent them from demanding a redrawing of borders according to their wishes?,” Papic asked.
He added he was afraid of a scenario in which “Bosnia would be left behind.”
“Everyone keeps forgetting that the first border change will happen between Albania and Kosovo. In the end, we are very small and if we remain dormant, if we remain left behind, great powers will move in and they will decide on our destiny,” he stressed.
Papic also told N1 that borders alone do not make a state, but its foundations, its internal structures and its constitutional order do. He is very worried by the rhetoric of rejection of constitutionality of peoples in Bosnia. This, he said, is very dangerous because it threatens Bosnia’s constitutional order from within.
Introduction of the civic system in Bosnia and Herzegovina with the ‘one man – one vote’ type of election would be very dangerous. It is dangerous because the ‘one man – one vote’ system was first introduced by the former President of Serbia Slobodan Milosevic who introduced this because he knew that Serbs were a relative majority in Yugoslavia and they would always win the election. That is why Yugoslavia fell apart and the war broke out, Papic stressed.
